Deaf to all but the Darkness
by Kerreb17
Summary: Mystia accidentally sustains a serious injury that could change her life as she knows it. How will she deal with the after-effects of her affliction? The tale is told from the perspective of Wriggle. M for language and future events.
1. Our Sudden Beginning

**Author Notes: This is a solemn story, meaning that there probably won't be many comical parts to it. If you're looking for a laugh, you might want to check around somewhere else. The chapters might be a tad short for some people's tastes, but I hope to update often to make up for that fact. With that in mind, let the tale begin!**

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><p>Gensokyo, a land of mystery and charm. For some reason, it seems even more beautiful than in previous days.<p>

The day couldn't be more perfect: the moon was shining a magnificent white, reflecting the spirit of the currently absent sun; the breeze was blowing casually, as if whispering something to the trees; the clouds were drifting aimlessly in the sea of aqua blue sky, wondering where to float off too next. Everything seemed so calm that day, for some reason or another.

In this mystical land, there exists a forest filled to the brim with magical creatures and youkai. Among the numerous trees and other plants, one can find various species of bugs, some noisy night sparrows, and maybe even some magicians. Some days, I can see the humans passing through on their way to the village as well, but they generally don't disturb us. They're more preoccupied with their daily activities and such, nothing that really interests me. In this way, we all live together in this place; the place that I call my home.

Oh, but what's a home without friends to share it with? My closest friend, Mystia Lorelei, is a night sparrow like the ones I mentioned before. I just call her 'Mysty' though, because it has a nice ring to it! She wears a pure white blouse underneath a long brown dress that puffs out down at the bottom. She also wears a small hat with wings on top, shaped sort of like a semi-circle, on top of her short pink hair. Did I forget to mention that she has really long, sharp nails? They really hurt! She absolutely loves to sing and does it all the time. Speaking of which, I think I hear a familiar tune...

"Hey Mysty! What a beautiful night tonight!"

Mysty was perched up in a large tree next to me, which I think the humans call an oak. She was obscured partially by the orange leaves, which surprisingly haven't fallen off yet even though winter is fast approaching.

"Is that Wriggle? Hey!" she responded.

Ack! It appears that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Wriggle Nightbug, and I'm a youkai firefly. I can control insects! Isn't that cool? I also have antennae on my head, which stick out of my forest green hair. I like to play with the fireflies and make light shows, and I'd like to think that I'm a generally friendly youkai.

"I was just about to sing another song. Care to join me?" she asked with pleading eyes. She always tries to get me to do things like this, but every time she asks I give her the same answer.

"Mysty, you know that I can't sing!"

"Aw come on! Your attire just screams 'performer' to me!"

It always has, I guess. I always wear a white blouse, just like Mysty, but I don't wear anything over it. Instead, I wear baggy blue pants and a long black cape. I think it makes me look cool and professional! Mysty thinks so too. I guess that's why we're so close, because we live in the same forest and can agree on a lot of things. She's a really good friend, now that I think about it.

"Nah, I'll pass."

"Fine! If you don't want to sing with me, will you at least play tag?"

"Alright. That sounds fun!"

And just like that, Mysty flew away from me at top speed. I guess that I'm the one who is supposed to catch her this time. Alright! The chase is on!

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><p>Mysty always picks the hardest paths for me to follow. She's a bird, so she can go faster and make sharper turns than I can. The fact that we're in a forest full of obstacles such as trees and other plants doesn't help either. I'm not that bad though, I can catch her...sometimes.<p>

After flying about for a while, Mysty was still very far ahead of me. She, knowing that I probably wasn't going to tag her today, turned around and started flying backwards. She looked at me and my vain attempts to catch up to her with a sarcastic yet entertained face.

"C'mon Wriggle! You gotta be able to catch me now! You're too slow!" she said with a mocking tone as she weaved in and out of the trees.

"You better watch where you're going Mysty! Don't crash into something!"

I must have been psychic that day. As soon as I said that, she rammed into a huge brown tree limb. There was a loud crack as she made contact with the wooden monolith, but the branch didn't seem to be broken. Mystia fluttered about in a disoriented and clumsy way for a couple of seconds before falling face-first into the cold-hard dirt below, releasing a cloud of dark brown and black dust. She wasn't moving.

"Oh God! Mysty!"

I, of course, went over to check on her. She was unconscious but breathing. Thank God she isn't dead...at least I hope so.

"Don't worry Mysty! I'm gonna get you to someone who can help!"

Now why would talk to her if I know I wouldn't get a response? I guess it was just me hoping that she'd respond. Maybe I thought that she'd say: 'Gotcha Wriggle! You should have seen the look on your face!' followed by an optimistic laugh. Unfortunately, that's not what happened.

I picked her up as delicately as I could by placing one arm on the back of the knees and the other around the waist. I believe the humans do this at their weddings, but this situation is completely different in nature than that. She looked normal, except that her head was drooping back at an odd angle. I'd have to be careful, but quick. Eirin Yagokoro could probably help, because she is the only person that I know who can heal youkai. She's a lunarian pharmacist who deals with a lot of drugs, so she would definitely have something for me. With my priorities straight and goals in mind, I flew off towards the bamboo forest with a limp, unconscious Mystia in hand. Tonight was going to be a long night.

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><p>I'm a decently fast flier, so getting to Eientei's gates wasn't very hard for me at all. The large almost mansion-sized house was placed deep inside the bamboo forest, a place known for its rabbit infestation. God knows why it was built in the middle of a bamboo forest. As I flew over the large bamboo gate, I turned my attention to the shape and color: traditional Japanese style roof that was colored a rusty red, while the walls, which had a lot of windows, were a cream-ish white. Wouldn't it be great if I could live there? Maybe someday...<p>

I had more important tasks to attend to, however. Mysty was still injured and I was still trying to get her to the only person that could help. It was late though, and the dead of night is not the best working condition for most people. Hopefully she would be awake and willing to help us.

"Eirin! Eirin! Please help me!"

The night-time silence remained as I waited for a response. Maybe they were all asleep already?

Suddenly, a rabbit with dark black hair who was dressed in a frilly pink dress poked her head out of one of the windows on the lowest floor, right next to a large wooden door. Maybe it's made of oak? Regardless, the rabbit stared up at me with a disturbing look on her face; it reeked of annoyance and grogginess.

"Wriggle? What are you and Mystia doing here?" the rabbit asked impatiently.

"Tewi, please get Eirin! Mysty hit a tree and I think she broke something!"

"It doesn't look that bad. If it's that serious, how about you come down here and take care of it yourself instead of flitting around up there like an idiot." she said in a demeaning tone. Her words cut deep into me, probably because it was true.

"Why are you being so mean! This is serious!"

I did realize though that I was being somewhat of an idiot. She can't help me if I'm not in the lab. Knowing this, I dropped down to the ground softly making sure that I didn't drop or injure my precious cargo any more than it already was. I approached that door that I saw earlier, which was now open. She was probably the one who opened it for me, though she still had a scowl on her face as she stood in the doorway.

"You do realize how late it is...right? We should all be asleep by now." Tewi said.

I didn't give her an answer. Why should I? My best friend, one of the only people that I actually like in this world, was injured and I'm supposed to be concerned about her bedtime! Who does she think she is?...

"But...I'm sure she can attend to one more thing before she goes off to bed." She said as she looked at me with a sort of reluctant face. I think that she realized how important Mysty was to me and that a life was nothing to take lightly.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

This gratitude was from the heart. Even if she had been somewhat of a nuisance in this last minute or too, she ultimately let me in. With a heart of gratitude and eyes blazing with determination, I walked into the expansive room that is Eientei's lab. A tall lady with a purple nurse's cap on top long silver braided hair was standing over a large black table with some glass containers with colorful liquids in them. She always wears the oddest dress which has four quadrants of color; the top-right (where a blouse would be) and bottom-left (where a skirt would be) are red while the top-left and the bottom-right are a dark purple color, not to mention that there are small white stars all over it. She's really pretty, as always; it must be due to the medicine that she makes. I should get some of that...but I have other things to deal with right now.

"Eirin! Eirin! Please help me!"

The silver-haired lady turned towards me and looked at Mysty and I for a second. Her face, which had previously revealed how tired she was at this point in the night, turned into that of legitimate concern.

"Alright, what's the problem?" she responded with a hint of exhaustion.

"Mysty hit a tree and she might be hurt really bad. Can you help her?"

Eirin approached me and put her both of her arms out straight, as if asking for me to hand over Mysty. I complied, and gently placed Mysty in her arms.

"I'll see what I can do. It looks like she broke her neck, which is usually fatal."

"Fatal?"

My best friend is about to die! No! This can't be happening! Who will I play tag with? Who will sing for me in the night time? Who will be the one to compliment me on my light shows? No! I won't accept this!

"Don't worry about it too much though, it doesn't look too bad. The fact that she's still breathing is proof of how lucky she is."

Eirin gave an odd, piercing glance at Tewi, who was now standing in front of the closed door. Tewi, who had a confused look on her face, shrugged as if indicating that she had nothing to do with it.

"Tewi, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd watch over Wriggle for the time being."

"Whatever you say, Miss Eirin." Tewi responded. She looked at Eirin with a pleading face, which read 'Why do I have to do this...". Eirin responded in kind by turning away from the both of us.

"Hopefully I'll be done in an hour or so. Please don't do anything stupid."

With that, she walked off through a large open door in the back, one of the three that were in the room. That must be where she does all of her most important work, but then again I'm not too sure. Maybe I'm just blowing the situation out of proportion. She did say 'fatal' though...ah, who am I kidding? Everything will be alright just like it always is. Mysty will walk out of that door, see me, and then say: 'Wriggle! Thank you for saving me! You really are the best friend that a sparrow could ever hope for!'. Life will be back to normal, almost like none of this ever happened...

"Hey, you know what? You're really boring, 'cause all you do is sit there and think to yourself. Anyways, I'm not gonna sit around for an hour doing nothing. See ya!"

And just like that, Tewi was off. She left me by myself, alone to think about Mysty and the future. Before I knew it, I began pacing up and down the length of the basic lab room. I was really nervous even though I had already convinced myself that everything was going to turn out alright. I couldn't shake the feeling, however, that something serious was happening as I paced that room...

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><p>I don't remember how long it was, but if I had to guess I'd say about two or three hours. Eirin emerged from the same door that she had left by. She didn't have much of a facial expression, but that was better than her frowning or looking discouraged. A smile would have been nice though.<p>

"Eirin! Is she alright? Could you do anything?"

"Don't worry." she responded. "She'll live."

Words can't possibly describe how I felt in that moment, so I guess I'll just say that I was happy beyond belief. Yeah, something of that nature.

"She's resting in a bed in the back right now, so you should probably go and see her."

"Do you know when she'll wake up?"

"I can't imagine that it'll take longer than ten minutes."

Mysty is going to be alright! Thank God! Now I can finally put my mind at ease.

"Thank you Eirin! Thank you so much!"

Eirin didn't respond immediately, she just nodded at me with a light smile on her face. There was something odd about it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"So...where is she?"

"If you follow me, I'll take you there."

Excited, I pulled up right next to Eirin. She turned to the left and slowly walked through yet another large wooden door, the third of the three in the room. I pranced along behind her like I was going to be given some kind of medal for my bravery and concern. I knew this wasn't true though, Mysty's smile would be enough.

Behind the door was a long hallway with numerous doors off to the side. There weren't any windows or lights, so the hallway was very dark. I stumbled a couple of times, probably out of sheer clumsiness. Eirin didn't seem to notice, however; she was probably preoccupied with more important matters. After a while, she stopped in front of a much smaller wooden white door about halfway down the hall.

"She's in here. Do you mind if I stay and make sure that she's completely alright?" Eirin asked.

"I don't mind...but what do you mean by 'completely alright'."

"Don't worry. Mystia will probably wake up in a minute or so. I'll explain everything then."

Suddenly, an ominous feeling of fear spread through my body. What if...

"Everything isn't alright...is it?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm checking." she said with a slightly acidic tone.

Wait, what? If not even the greatest youkai healer in Gensokyo could completely fix Mysty, then what's going on?

She opened the door for me, and I walked into the bedroom. Mysty was lying there in the bed face-up. She looked fine as far as I could tell, but then again I'm not a doctor so I wouldn't know. She looked so peaceful, but I knew better than that. If there was something wrong with her on the inside, then I wouldn't be able to tell from the outside. Only Eirin would know the real answer, and she did.

At this moment, Mysty opened her eyes and looked at both Eirin and I. I quickly turned towards her and tried to hide my look of fear and concern with a mask of joy. I think it worked.

"Mysty! You're awake!"

"...Wriggle? Where am I? What happened?" Mysty asked as she shook her head back and forth. She looked a bit disoriented, but that's normal for someone who had just been knocked out.

Mysty pressed both of her hands into the mattress and pushed herself up into the pillows so that she could sit up. She didn't seem too weak or exhausted, but I'm sure that she was. Being knocked unconscious must really take its toll on you. I hope that I don't have to deal with that any time soon...

"You rammed into a huge tree limb back in the forest and got knocked out! I don't know much about the technical stuff, but I'm sure that Eirin can explain it."

"I can be an idiot sometimes, huh?" Mysty asked. She gave a quick laugh, but it didn't sound quite right for some reason. That was probably just because of her exhaustion, though; nothing to worry about. "Eirin, would you please tell me what happened."

"You had severely injured your neck. It wasn't too serious, but there were some...complications. None of the bones in your neck actually 'broke', but your syrinx was lacerated beyond repair. I had to remove it so that it wouldn't get infected or cause you pain for the rest of your life." Eirin responded solemnly.

Her face, which had already been emotionless to begin with, was now even more serious. Even though I had no idea what she was talking about, I could only assume that she had just told us something horrible.

"Syrinx...? I don't understand. Could you explain it in simpler terms please?" Mysty asked with inquisitive and innocent eyes. I didn't realize it at the time, but I wouldn't be seeing that expression for a very long time.

"Please Eirin, tell us what's wrong!"

Eirin paused. In that brief moment of silence, the atmosphere got so tense that I couldn't breathe. Nothing, however, could have prepared either of us for what she said next...

"In other words...you'll probably never be able to sing again."

Eirin turned away from us and exited the room without saying another word, leaving us to face this debilitating revelation alone...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

10 April, 2011

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><p><strong>Author Notes: This is my first fanfictionstory ever! I love creating stories but I never actually get down to writing them, sadly. This case is different!**

**The hardest part about writing this is having to tone down my imagery and diction to indicate her (how do I put this...) "lack of intelligence". She's not Cirno-level stupid, but she's definitely not the smartest youkai ever. Stream of consciousness is cool too, but I don't think I played around with it too much. The tenses mix oddly, which I would say is understandable considering the situation. Panic is always disorienting, eh?**

****God, I must have been SOOOOOO SAD when I wrote this! When I came up with this topic, I thought to myself "How could you think of something so horrific! Mystia without the ability to sing? That's downright sadistic!" Regardless, I thought that it would be something that people would like, so I wrote about it. I've only scratched the surface though! Stay tuned to see what happens next! (You will, won't you? *pleading eyes*)**  
><strong>

**Anyways, hopefully this story will turn out to be an entertaining one and I hope that you all had as much fun reading this chapter as I had writing it! ****Cheers!**


	2. Our Fateful Encounters

**Author's Notes: Quick lesson before we begin. "Itadakimasu!" is a Japanese phrase that is traditionally used when a person is about to eat. It is the equivalent of saying "Bon Appétite!" in French, "Buen Provecho!" in Spanish, or "Enjoy!" in English.**

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><p><em>Nothing, however, could have prepared either of us for what she said next...<em>

_"In other words...you'll probably never be able to sing again."_

_Eirin turned away from us and exited the room without saying another word, leaving us to face this debilitating revelation alone..._

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><p>The room was dead silent. Neither Mysty nor I wanted to think about it, but the hard truth was that she would probably never sing again. As I sat there trying to take in the gravity of the situation, Mysty began to cry a waterfall of tears.<p>

I wish that it could have turned out some other way. Singing meant everything to Mysty; it was her passion and her muse. I can't even imagine how she would live without it.

"What's a bird that can't sing?…" she asked, choking on her own tears.

"Mysty…"

I couldn't think of anything to say. What could I say? This was her life going down the drain and I was stuck right in the middle of it.

"What am I going to do now?" she asked. At this point, it seemed like she was talking to herself and completely ignoring me. Then again, it might have been better that way since I wasn't really helping.

"I just want to curl up into a ball and disappear. That's all. Is that so much to ask?"

I didn't have a response for her, and I don't think that she was expecting one. I just sat there while she cried her heart out. There wasn't anything that I could do at this point. It was like that for a while, though I don't remember exactly how long.

"Mysty, let's go home. We can't spend the night here."

She rose from the bed without a word and approached the snow white door that led to the hallway. I walked up to her side and grabbed her hand.

"We're going to make it through this, it'll be alright."

Still no response. I don't think she believed me. Her face was clouded with some emotion that I rarely see from her: anguish. She must have been thinking about what the rest of her life would be like. It probably didn't look very promising...

With heavy hearts and solemn spirit, we both entered the hallway which was, just as it had been before, pitch black. I didn't stumble this time.

Navigating through Eientei wasn't very difficult; whoever built it really knew what they were doing. Exit the hallway into the lab, take a right out the large oak door, and we're outside. Mystia still wasn't well enough to fly though, so I had to carry her again. I picked her up the same way as I had before, arms supporting the knees and the waist, and pushed off into this seemingly imperishable night.

Everything was still quiet, like it had been when the night began. Mysty had fallen asleep in my arms. That made sense, considering what she's been through; not to mention that she had to go work tomorrow. She runs a grilled lamprey stall in the middle of the forest, which is actually quite popular because she's a really good cook. Leave it to Mysty to create wonderful foodstuffs daily. She actually doesn't make that much money, but that doesn't matter because she really doesn't have anything to spend it on.

After a half hour or so, we arrived back at the forest. The moon was about to set and the sun looked ready to peek its head over the horizon. At this point, I was so tired that I could barely fly. That's what I get for being a good friend though, so I'll wear that badge with pride. I placed Mystia in a tree filled with bright orange leaves, so that she could get some sleep without being seen or disturbed. The branches look strong enough, so there's nothing to worry about.

I'm not really nocturnal, but I got used to it since Mysty is. Lately her duties as stall-owner have been getting in the way of her sleep though, which makes her seem really tired sometimes when we play. It's kind of annoying, but she likes cooking lampreys for people so it's fine by me.

Exhausted from the day's events, I dropped do the ground and sat up against that same tree. Within seconds, I was fast asleep.

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><p>Dusk was approaching that next day, time for me to get up.<p>

Something about the darkness of the night caught me off guard. I caught myself wondering if yesterday had been just a dream, which it wasn't. I don't think I'm capable of having nightmares that scary.

The moon decided to hide itself from me tonight behind some dark, ominous clouds. Maybe it was tired from shining so brilliantly last night? A harsh wind was blowing leaves around in a flurry too. All in all, it felt like it was about to rain.

"Hey Mysty, it looks like it's about to…"

She wasn't there. What did I expect? Mysty is diligent; it's not like she'd shirk off work even if she had lost her ability to sing. Unfortunately, life doesn't stop just because you're upset…right? I better pay her stall a visit, just to make sure that she's doing alright.

Since I didn't check exactly where I was when I landed, I had to wander around a bit to remember what part of the forest I was in. Most of the trees look very similar, while the absence of the moon's light didn't help much either. Once I got my bearings, I realized that Mysty's lamprey stand wasn't very far away from where I was. In fact, it was only about a five minute walk. Lucky me.

The light from the ornamental lamps hanging on the sides of the stand lit the clearing a dim yellow. Her stall was really just a small wooden shack with a large open window for serving and three wooden stools out in front. A small sign that read 'OPEN' in bright red letters was hanging from the window. There was also a white retractable cloth that hung over the stools so that people could eat in the rain without getting wet.

Nobody was at the stand at the moment, so I felt like this would be the perfect time to confront Mysty. I walked up to the stand and hopped onto the middle stool to find that she was washing some bowls. The interior of the stand is very simple, organized so that even Mysty can find everything easily. There was a grill right where the window opened to the outside. Her cooking utensils were arranged on the side walls, organized by function. In the back was a counter that had a tub of water for washing plates and the icebox where she kept her lampreys.

"Heya Mysty. What's up?"

She, apparently too consumed with her duty to turn around and give me a smile, continued to scrub hard at the bowls.

"Hey Wriggle. Just doing business as usual." She responded. She sounded very flat and lifeless, which I guess is understandable considering her current state.

"Have you had any customers at all recently?"

"…Do you want something or not?" she responded sharply.

I was taken aback. Here words came off as being hostile and acidic.

"I'm fine, thanks. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"My throat hurts, but it's nothing that you need to worry about."

I started to get up. It was becoming pretty clear that I wasn't wanted here.

"Well I guess I'll see you la…"

I didn't get to finish my sentence. What had begun as a light pitter-patter on the cloth became a torrent of rain flooding down upon the stand. There weren't any leaks, so I was perfectly dry. That's what this thing is made for, right?

"Guess not." she said.

Just about as suddenly as the rain had started, a young lady ran up behind me. She quickly sat down in the stool to my left, her clothes almost completely drenched. She wore a light blue dress and a beige top. Frilly pink ribbons held together the costume while a scarlet headband had somehow managed to keep her hair in order.

"Jeez, what's with this sudden downpour!" said the guest.

Mysty turned around, revealing her tear-stained face. It's obvious that she was still suffering, but at least she was able to function.

"Alice Margatroid?" asked Mysty in a slightly surprised tone. "I haven't seen you here in a while. What brings you here?"

"I had to get out of the rain, and it just so happens that this stand is the only shelter in the area." Alice replied. Her voice revealed that she was slightly dejected, probably because the rain got her all wet.

"Would you like something to eat?"

"Sure. It doesn't look like this storm is going to end any time soon. I'll just take whatever you have."

Without another word, Mysty pulled out a large lamprey from her ice box. Lampreys look really odd with all of their weird teeth, their long, slimy body, and their odd, pale yellow color.

"You want some, Wriggle?" Mysty asked.

"No thanks. I'm not really that hungry."

Mysty placed the large lamprey on the already hot grill, making a small puff of smoke and a loud hissing noise. This was always my favorite part of the cooking process because everything sounded and looked so cool.

"You sure?" asked Alice. "I'm pretty sure I won't be able to eat all of this."

"I'm fine. Thank you."

Mysty pulled some of the bowls that she had just finished washing out of the water tub and placed them in front of us. They looked especially clean. I would later find out that Mysty had methodically scrubbing the same two bowls for the whole day, which explains why they were so shiny.

"Hey, I've noticed something. Don't you usually sing while you cook?" asked Alice in a curious tone.

"...I'm not in the mood for that today. Sorry to disappoint you." Mysty responded in a hushed voice. Apparently, she was embarrassed about not having the ability to sing. I would be too, if I had suddenly lost the ability to control insects.

Mysty flipped over the lamprey on the grill. It made another hissing noise as the flesh began to cook through. It was starting to smell really good, actually.

"Oh really? That's a shame. You're usually so peppy and upbeat, though. I can't help but imagine…"

"Great! A place that serves food!" exclaimed an unknown voice from behind Alice and me.

I spun around in our stools to look at the newcomer, who was yet another person who I hadn't met yet. She wore a snow-white shirt under a red and pink plaid waistcoat, which matched her long skirt of the same color. Her wavy hair was a forest green, just like mine. On top of all of that, she was holding a large umbrella shaped like a pink flower that was keeping her dry from the rain. She was really pretty…

"Ah, now I have someone to sha…" Alice paused. "Oh, it's Yuuka. What are you up to now?"

"Nothing, I was just going to take care of some business in the human village." Yuuka said as her eyes gleamed. "I got really hungry and I didn't feel like trudging through this storm, so…looks like I'm staying here for the time being!"

She hopped on the stool to my right. She had some sort of odd allure to her, though I couldn't place my finger on it. Now that I mention it, not a lot of people come through the forest. This probably explains why I'm just now meeting so many unfamiliar people.

"Welcome to my grilled lamprey stand. I'm Mystia Lorelei. How about you?" asked Mysty. It appears that she wasn't paying attention earlier.

"Interesting. My name is Yuuka Kazami."

Mysty had finished cooking the lamprey. It was a nice brown now, with black grill marks on the sides. As I took in the wonderful smell, she grabbed a large, sharp knife off one of the side walls and started chopping it into small disks.

"How about you two?" asked Yuuka with a curious tone.

"I'm Wriggle Nightbug. Nice to meet you."

"You already know me Yuuka, no need for me to reintroduce myself." Alice said with a hint of annoyance.

"Do I really? Is it maybe…Alice? Hey, long time no see! Are you still playing around with that magic book of yours?"

Alice flinched at the question. As I would later discover, Yuuka was referring to the 'Grimoire of Alice', a large tome full of powerful magical spells and other curiosities. It comes from some far-away land that I'll probably never visit.

"I work with dolls now. I don't use the grimoire anymore." She replied. Her words were terse, like she was trying to avoid this conversation.

"Still sore about that skirmish, huh? That's a shame. I was really hoping that you would still pose some sort of a threat to me, but I guess those days are long gone. I wonder…why did you decide to give up all that power to go play with some silly dollies?"

Yuuka was clearly toying with Alice, but she probably didn't see it that way.

"Shut it Yuuka, before I come over there and kick your ass back to those damned sunflower fields." she replied in an extremely hostile voice. Alice was really pissed, and I was right in the middle of it.

"Bring it! I can use little Wriggle here as a body shield!"

Yuuka turned me to the left towards Alice in my stool and wrapped her arms around me from the back. As scared as I was that I was about to get clobbered or have the life squeezed out of me, I felt something odd. Her embrace was really warm and soft. I couldn't stop myself from blushing…

"You two cut it out." ordered Mysty from the kitchen. "I don't want to have a fight here."

She had already cut the lamprey and plated it in two bowls runny brown sauce. She pushed them both to Alice and Yuuka along with a pair of chopsticks. What had looked like a disgusting monster earlier had been transformed into a beautiful platter, which was probably delicious as well. Mysty was always good at that.

"Itadakimasu!" exclaimed Yuuka after letting go of me.

Both Alice and Yuuka grabbed their chopsticks and began to eat their meal. At this point, Mysty poured two small glasses of chilled sake and placed them in front of the two eating guests. She left the bottle on the counter, just in case someone wanted more.

"This is good, as always." noted Alice. Her face had calmed down a bit as she slowly enjoyed her dinner.

Yuuka didn't make a comment. She was too busy slurping down the whole thing. Either she was extremely hungry or she really liked it. I think it's the latter.

"Speaking of which…how are your dolls doing? Have any big plans?" asked Mysty.

Alice paused and her face lit up.

"Actually yes, I do. I'm trying to make a doll choir, but I can't figure out how to get any of my dolls to sing."

Mysty's head turned to Alice in a single jerk. It seems that Alice piqued her interest.

"I've been trying to get Marisa to help me out, but she's being really stubborn. Apparently she's too busy working on some secret project that she says I'll love. At this point, I don't think that'll happen."

"...maybe I could help?" responded Mysty. Her eyes had a little bit more life to them than before.

"That sounds fine. I could use all the help that I can get." Alice sighed. "In fact, we could get started tonight if this rain ever stops."

I looked at Mysty, trying to figure out if she'd agree to it or not. I thought this was a good chance to find something to do with her life, especially after the accident.

"You should do it Mysty! It sounds like fun doesn't it?" I said.

She nodded back at me and then turned to Alice with a half smile.

"I accept your offer. Thank you." she replied.

In the end, it seems like everything was working out alright. With something like that to do, Mysty wouldn't have to feel sad anymore. She could spend her days trying to figure out how to make the dolls sing. Once she's done with that, she could be the conductor of the choir. It seemed like a dream opportunity for her, at least to me. Now we don't have to worry about this any…

"Damn! That was good!" exclaimed Yuuka as she finished off the remnants of her bowl. She had also drunk a large amount of sake, about half of the bottle to be exact. Because of this, her cheeks were a very rosy pink color and she was wobbling back and forth a little bit on the stool. Somehow, I wasn't disgusted by how drunk she was.

"Glad you liked it." said Mysty. "Dinner's on me, so don't worry about it."

"That's convenient. Thank you. And you know what else is convenient?" asked Alice.

The rain had stopped. Gensokyo does have some really odd and unpredictable weather sometimes.

"The rain's stopped? Great!" exclaimed Yuuka. "Now I can go around and look at some pretty flowers!"

Yuuka hopped off of the stool and walked out into the night, staring at her surroundings as if she had never been here before. Yeah, she was clearly drunk.

"Let's go Mystia. You can stay at my place until we get this project finished." said Alice.

"Thanks Alice. Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?"

"That's what you get for making such great food."

Mysty poured out the rest of Alice's bowl and threw both of them into the water tub along with the knife she had used to cut the lamprey. The grill had already run out of charcoal and its flame had died, so she didn't need to worry about it. She flipped the 'OPEN' sign to 'CLOSE' as she left, taking the bottle of sake with her.

"Bye Wriggle. You better take of Yuuka and make sure she doesn't hurt herself." said Mysty as she was walking away.

I felt a little bit better now, knowing that she was going to be working with Alice. Mysty's life might not be so bad after all, even if she still can't sing.

"You're the one who's gonna get hurt if you don't watch yourself!" shouted Yuuka as she continued to wander about aimlessly in the clearing. It seems like I've got a lot to deal with here…

"Yuuka, come over here so that you can lie down for a bit. You're totally drunk."

"Lie down! Who do you think I am!" she exclaimed as she wandered off to a tree nearby. I couldn't tell if she was actually upset or if it was just the alcohol talking through her.

"You really should lie…"

She beat me to the punch, though not by her own will. She had passed out and fell right in front of the tree. Should I consider myself lucky?

"…down and take it easy. Just like that."

I have this odd habit of talking even when people aren't listening to me. Either that or I don't talk at all when everyone wants to hear me speak. I've really got to get around to fixing that.

I didn't think that Yuuka would be able to sleep well in that position, so I walked over and propped her up against the tree. It was then that I noticed what aura had been surrounding her the whole night. It wasn't some sort of allure due to strength as I had initially thought, but it was her scent. She smelled like fresh-picked flowers, one of my favorite things in the whole world.

"Good night then, Yuuka. Sleep well."

I patted her head, for a reason I still don't understand. Maybe I was trying to cling on to someone new now that Mysty had left? Looking back, I was probably right.

After my new 'friend' fell asleep, I almost immediately found myself bored. I stood there and thought for a while, but nothing really came to mind.

Then I thought back to my brief moment with Yuuka. Something, probably the umbrella or scent, told me that she really liked flowers. Speaking of which, there are some pretty rare flowers in this forest. Then it's settled, I'm going to go pick some flowers for her.

* * *

><p>I spent most of the night searching for these rare flowers, which is why I guess they're called 'rare'. It helps to be a bug though, as I'm naturally attracted to the scents of certain flowers. Most of them had very strong aromas that I could notice from pretty far away, but others were a lot softer and harder to find.<p>

After I had gathered my flowers into a small bouquet, I went back to Mysty's stand. Yuuka had woken up and was sitting on one of the stools. She was facing out towards me as if she had been expecting me. The pink color had faded from her face and she looked relatively normal at this point, at least as normal as when I had met her.

"Ah Wriggle! I knew you'd come back."

"Good morning Yuuka." I responded. I didn't really have that much to say…yet.

I walked up to her and gave her the bouquet. She lit up, seeing the wide array of colorful flowers I had brought back to her.

"Wow, this is really pretty. Are these native?"

"Yes. They're all native to this forest."

"That's really kind of you, Wriggle. How did you know I like flowers?"

If I was smart, I would have said that it was the umbrella. But stupid me picked out the real reason.

"You smelled like flowers, so I thought you might like them. You do like them, don't you?"

"Yes, I like them a lot. In fact, let me show you how much I like them!…"

She jumped off of the stool and landed right on top of me. Her eyes were gleaming brightly as I lied there on the ground. What I thought was going to be something like a hug turned into something drastically different. I found myself getting repeatedly pummeled by Yuuka, something that I definitely wasn't expecting. It didn't feel like a normal beating though.

I don't think I can really put this sensation into words. It wasn't similar to anything I've experienced before with the likes of Reimu, Marisa, Yukari, or even Alice. There was something beautifully elegant about the way I was being struck. It didn't even hurt even though I could feel each and every blow. If you're lucky, maybe someday you'll have the same experience…without having to get all bloody, of course.

"And that's how much I love them!" said Yuuka as she got up. She had an oddly sadistic grin on her face. Who would have guessed that the flower-lover liked to dish out pain on a regular basis? If that's her way of saying 'Thank you!', then I'd have to say I'm fine with it.

"You're welcome." I said in a faint voice. The funny thing is that I actually meant it.

"Well I guess I'll see you around then. I have to go to the village now and finish my business. Thanks again for the flowers!"

With that, she was off. At this point, I just laid there for a while on the ground before I convinced myself to go to sleep. It had been another interesting day. I guess it helps to get away from the tedium, doesn't it? Keeping in mind the events of the day and my new friend, I drifted off to sleep in the clearing.

* * *

><p>"WRIGGLE! WRIGGLE!" a high pitched voice wailed.<p>

Ugh! What's with this rude awakening? Not the best way to start your day.

I got up from my resting spot to see none other than Mysty running towards me at full speed. She had an extremely frightened look on her face, as if she had just committed some unspeakable act.

Everything wasn't as going to turn out as well as I had previously thought…

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

14 April, 2011

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><p><strong>Authors Notes: A new chapter in less than 4 days? It's a new record! Well of course it's a new record since I've only written two. Who's keeping track anyways? *raises hand*<strong>

**I had a good bit of fun writing this chapter. Since I had a little bit of extra time in the night (due to exams and such), I spent most if not all of my free time writing this while listening to various versions of "Doll Judgment". Quite a good combination of writing and music, I think.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this installment! I can't say that the next chapter will be out so quickly, but you never know. Maybe you and I will get lucky! ****Cheers!**


	3. Our Dubious Recollections

**Author's Notes: Part of this chapter is from Mystia's perspective because she is recounting yesterday's events to Wriggle. I just wanted to warn you all so that it wouldn't be confusing.**

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><p><em>"WRIGGLE! WRIGGLE!" a high-pitched voice wailed.<em>

_Ugh! What's with this rude awakening? Not the best way to start your day._

_I got up from my resting spot to see none other than Mysty running towards me at full speed. She had an extremely frightened look on her face, as if she had just committed some unspeakable act._

_Everything wasn't as going to turn out as well as I had previously thought…_

* * *

><p>I stood up, but not without some stiffness. It seems that my 'fun' with Yuuka might have hurt a little bit more than I thought. The sun's rays, since I had been forcefully woken up way before I was supposed to, made my eyes burn. To top it off, here comes Mysty screaming her lungs out. I must be really grumpy to be thinking like this.<p>

She stopped right in front of me and, before she even attempted to catch her breath, grabbed me by the shoulders.

"There were the dolls..and the song...and then Alice...!" Mysty stammered as an unusually high-pitched voice continued to grate my ears.

"Calm down! Just take a minute and think about what you're trying to say."

She paused for a second and took a deep breath. She seemed a little bit less panicked than she was before.

"Are you alright now? Can you tell me what happened?" I asked.

"I think so." she replied. She then began to recount the day's events…

* * *

><p>I was walking with Alice through the forest to get back to her house. She looked pretty tired because it was really late in the night. I was too, since I'd been 'working' the whole day. The moonlight lit the path in front of us with its silver glow, making sure that we didn't accidentally trip over each other. It would have been slightly romantic if we were lovers, but we aren't.<p>

"So what exactly do you want me to do?" I asked Alice.

"Like I said, I need you to help me figure out how to make these dolls physically capable of singing. You're a night sparrow, so it makes sense that you would know about that stuff." she replied.

The truth is that I didn't really know what made me able to sing. Eirin had said something about a 'seerinks', but I'm not too sure what that is. If Eirin says that's what lets birds sing, then I guess I have to believe her. She is smarter than me, after all.

"Yeah, I think I can do that."

I lied. I was really just trying to find something to do with my life. Alice offered me a job, so I took it; it was as simple as that. No hidden motives, no underhanded tactics, no…well you get the point.

"Good, because we're here. That went much faster than I expected." said Alice as we neared her abode.

The house was only one story, except for a circular two-story tower attached to the right side. The whole house was painted a clean white color with black trims and a navy blue roof. There were two windows straddling the main entrance door, which was large enough to let both Alice and her dolls exit and enter without any trouble.

"You first." said Alice as she opened the door for me.

"Thanks."

I entered the house and was pleasantly surprised. It was all one main room, except for a door off to the left and a stairwell off to the right. There was a large wooden table with four chairs in the corner, which is probably where she ate. Directly across from the table was a small kitchen area. Even I had a larger space to work with, since all she had was a sink, a stove, and a rack of various cooking utensils and pots. In the other half of the room were a couch, a large bookshelf, and the stairwell that I mentioned earlier; nothing too special, really.

Another thing that I immediately noticed was that dolls of all different colors were floating around everywhere. Some were doing chores, some were playing, and others were staring at the new guest that they had never seen before. That guest, if you haven't figured it out yet, was me.

Alice walked over to the large wooden table and pulled out two chairs. She sat down in one and motioned for me to come over by patting the seat of the other chair.

"Wow...your house is pretty big." I said as I tried to come up with some sort of reasonable compliment. I sat down in the other chair, which I promptly turned so that I could face her.

"Thanks, but you should go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits if you want to talk about big houses. As a point of reference, the courtyard alone is large enough to hold hundreds of thousands of spirits in the burning fires of hell. Don't ask how; I have no idea."

"Hell? I don't have any plans to go there any time soon, but what's it like there?"

"It's really hot." she responded swiftly.

"How do you know? Have you ever been there before?"

"No, but Marisa has. I lent her some dolls so that she could resolve an incident there."

"Did you complete the mission?"

"Of course we did." Alice responded in a slightly proud tone. "Marisa and I always take care of business."

Alice really is someone to look up to. She was intelligent, skilled, and responsible, not to mention that she is really pretty. She has the patience to put up with some people that I probably couldn't stand to talk with for five minutes. Her ability to create and manipulate the most beautiful, and yet very lethal, dolls impresses me a lot as well. What I'm trying to say is that she is my idol.

"Would you like some tea then?" she asked as a doll floated next to her. It was dressed in a black dress covered by a pink apron, and a pink ribbon was on top of her blonde hair as well. It was very well made and I honestly thought that it was really cute.

"No thanks. My throat is hurting a bit today."

I had noticed that the pitch of my voice had risen slightly over the course of the day. Maybe I had caught some sort of cold?

"Really? You know, I'm sure that I have some medicine for that." she replied. With a snap of her fingers, the small doll flew away up the stairs.

"So…where is the choir?"

"I'm making them in my workspace upstairs. They're not finished yet, unfortunately."

"You know, your dolls are really cute. I wish I was that talented."

Alice's face lit up. Someone actually appreciated the hard work and love she put into making those miniature beings. If you haven't figured it out, that lucky person was me.

"Thanks Mystia. I don't hear that a lot." Alice responded. A small smile assured me that she was genuinely pleased with my comment.

I smiled back at her. This seemed very similar to other times that I had talked with her at the lamprey stand. She would often come in, distraught at something that Marisa or someone else had said. It was my job to calm her down with some food, song, and conversation. I almost always do a pretty good job, though the ones dealing with Marisa are pretty tough to handle. Alice really likes Marisa, almost to the point that she loves her. Because of this, almost every conversation drifts off onto something about the meaning of life and what love is. I've never had an answer for her, and I doubt I ever will.

"Anyways, we really should be going to bed. There's a guest room right over there. Just ask the dolls for something if you need it." Alice said as she pointed to the only door in the room.

The same doll from before came floating down the steps with a small green bottle. Alice snatched the bottle out of its hands and opened it.

"Oh, I almost forgot about this. Just drink it and you should start to feel better." she said. She left the bottle on the table before getting up from her seat.

"Good night Mystia. Sleep well."

With that, Alice ascended the stairwell. I assume that her bedroom is upstairs then. Maybe she sleeps in her workroom?

I picked up the green bottle from the table and, without thinking too much about it, drank it all. There wasn't an immediate effect, but my throat had started to feel just a little bit better. That's a good sign, I guess.

I got up from the chair and headed over to the guest room door, which was a light-brown wood. Upon opening it, I realized that the room was actually a nice place to stay despite not having that much furniture. There was a bed and a large wardrobe: two things that I rarely got to use. The bed, which was large enough for two people, had white sheets, a yellow cover, and two white pillows. The wardrobe, which was the same light-brown as the door, was large enough to hold all of my clothes. I had no need for it, though.

I checked to make sure that no dolls were in the room before I shut the door behind me. Before I had time to think about it, the bed had drawn me in with its allure. I jumped on the bed, rolled onto my back, and promptly fell asleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day!

* * *

><p>I awoke that next day to find four dolls hovering over me. These were the same type as the one that brought me that medicine yesterday. They were all staring at me, as if they were waiting for me to do something.<p>

"What do you guys want?" I asked in a high-pitched and raspy voice. Apparently the medicine hadn't worked, because my throat still hurt. Not only that, but my voice had gotten even more out of pitch. So much for that…

The dolls, probably surprised by my sudden awakening, flew straight out of the open door. I don't mind them; it's just that I like to have my privacy now and again, especially when I'm sleeping. In the forest, you never know what wild creature or vicious youkai could do to you while you were sleeping. It's a feeling that everyone has, I guess.

I quickly got up out of the bed and quickly straightened out my clothes. They were a little bit disorderly since I slept on them, but I don't mind that much. Should I?

As I exited the guest room, I saw Alice sitting on the couch reading a purple book. I can read a little bit, but I don't really have any use for it. It's not one of those skills that I need to survive.

"Hey Alice. What're you doing?"

She got up from the couch and turned towards me. She put some piece of paper between the pages that she was reading and closed the book.

"Ah, you're up. Did you have a good rest?" she asked with a kind look on her face.

"Yes, I slept well. Do you know how late it is?"

"It's almost five 'o clock in the afternoon." she responded. Apparently Alice didn't know that we don't have a way to keep time in the forest.

"I mean, how close are we to dusk?"

"Oh," she stated in surprise. "I'm sorry. We're about an hour or two away from sunset."

That sounded about right. I had to wake up somewhat early to get everything prepared at the lamprey stall so that I could attend to any customers that drifted by in the night-time.

"Aren't you hungry? I can get the dolls to make you something if you want."

"Actually, I'm starving! Thank you! Whatever they want to make is fine by me, but I'd like some meat."

Alice snapped her fingers and a group of dolls swarmed around her. They were the same dolls from before, I think. If that's true, then they must be in charge of taking care of my needs as a guest. Alice sure is a great host.

"Fish and rice for dinner. Get to it." Alice ordered. She had named one of my favorite dishes of all time. How'd she know that I love fish so much?

The dolls immediately flew into the small kitchen area and began to cook. It was like they were on autopilot.

"How did you get them to do that?"

Alice gave a brief laugh before walking over and sitting down at the dining table.

"With a little bit of magic and a lot of knowledge, that's how." she replied.

I walked over and sat down at the table with Alice. She always continues to impress me…

"Yo Alice! What're you up to?" shouted an unknown voice from upstairs.

"Marisa? Did you break in again? I have a guest today, so please leave." she replied calmly. Apparently, Marisa was upstairs doing something she probably wasn't supposed to be doing.

"Alice having visitors other than me? That's new! Who's the lucky bast…"

"Just shut up and come downstairs."

"Alright! No need to get irritated about it, da ze."

She descended the stairwell quickly and jumped off the end, landing right in front of the bookshelf. Marisa is a blonde-haired witch with golden eyes who, for obvious reasons, wears a black witch's cap with a small white bow and a yellow star on it. She wears a medium-length black dress which is complemented by an apron-like piece of white clothing that she wears over it. She usually has a broom with her too, but she probably left that somewhere upstairs.

"Oh, so Mystia is the lucky lady? Good for you!"

"Shut up, Marisa. She's here because she's helping me with the choir project." Alice said sternly.

I sat there silently as the two continued to banter back and forth. This doesn't sound anything like what Alice had told me, but is this how they usually interact?

"I thought I was helping you with that! What made you call in reinforcements?" Marisa responded in a mocking tone.

"I called her over because you're obviously not helping."

"Hey, that's not fair! I've been really busy lately with this…"

"...'project that I know you're going to love!'?" Alice interrupted. "Yeah, I've heard that one before. Nice try."

"Fine, I'll get serious and help!" Marisa protested. "But I need to use the restroom first. I'll be just a second, da ze!"

Marisa ran back upstairs, aloof as could be. Nothing seems to bother her much. Is that a good or bad trait to have, I wonder...

"Jeez Marisa, you really are a handful." Alice said under her breath while shaking her head back and forth. "Sometimes you just don't understand do you?"

"I understand, Alice. Some people are just like that, huh?"

Alice nodded in agreement. Then, she suddenly brought something up that I wasn't expecting.

"You know, I was really disappointed that you didn't sing for us yesterday. Won't you please just sing me a short song while Marisa is away?" asked Alice with pleading eyes.

Damn, I'm trapped. I can either choose to tell her the truth, go ahead and try to sing, or avoid the situation entirely. I went with the third option.

"But I really don't feel like it. My throat hurts and I don't want to right now. Sorry."

"Please? I just want to hear one, that's all."

Damn, I'm screwed. I guess I have to resort to Plan B: I'll try to sing. If it doesn't work out, I can just blame it on my 'illness', right? But wait…

I hadn't actually tried to sing at all since Eirin told me I couldn't do it. After thinking about that, I instantly realized my stupidity. The only way to figure out if I'm unable to do something is to try doing it, right?

"Alright, Alice. I won't sing a whole song, but just a little part of one." I said nervously. If I fall flat on my face, it's over with. I've never been known for giving up easily though, so I'm going through with it.

I thought of an appropriate song and melody, both of which I heard somewhere in the human village. I was nervous, but that's never stopped me before. Oh well, here I go!

_~Today is a new beginning_

_As you hear my love ringing_

_It survives even the darkest void_

_And will never be destroyed~_

I wore the largest smile as I could possibly fit on my face. I was absolutely giddy with glee. Eirin was wrong! I can still sing!

"So what'd you think of it, Alice?" I asked excitedly. I don't think that anything could possibly ruin this moment for me!

She didn't respond. She was just standing there, staring at me blankly with her light-green eyes and emotionless face.

"…Alice?"

Still no response.

"…Alice? What's wrong, Alice?" I asked frantically. Did I hurt her somehow?

I panicked. I tapped her on the shoulder, but she didn't react. I grabbed both of her shoulders and shook her around, but she still stared at me with that unnerving, blank stare. Without thinking, I dashed out the door and just kept running. I never looked back…

* * *

><p>"…and that's about everything." said Mysty as she finished her tale. "I'm pretty sure that Marisa can take care of Alice better than I can, so I'm not too worried about that." She took a deep breath before looking for my reaction.<p>

I was awestruck and dubious at the same time. None of this made any sense, and I just couldn't force myself believe this flight of fantasy! Is Mysty actually lying to me?

"I can't believe this. Eirin said that you couldn't sing." I said in response. I looked at her with an extremely disappointed face, hoping she would feel guilty about lying to me.

"But it's true!" she exclaimed with a distraught look. "Why don't you believe me?"

"It doesn't make any sense, that's why." I replied. How far was she going to push this ludicrous story?

"If I can prove it to you, will you believe me?"

"Fine. Just sing something for me and then we'll know for sure."

Mysty cleared her throat, which sounded extremely raspy for some reason. Her voice was really off today for some reason, so I guess that's understandable. As I awaited the first note of her song, I felt something odd. Something, though I don't know exactly what, wasn't right. She opened her mouth, and right as I thought she was about to sing the first note…

…everything went black. I couldn't feel anything.

_~Please believe me! Please believe me!~_

I could hear her song, but I couldn't make it stop. It just kept repeating over and over and over again. I couldn't get out. I was trapped in darkness; darkness devoid of everything but that endlessly repeating phrase…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

16 April, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>**ALICE! ALICE? ALIIIIIIIIIIIICE! (Continue? Y/N)**

**And the tale continues on! For all of those unanswered questions, you'll have to tune in next week! Wait…since when did my notes become a TV show? Ah well, who really cares anyways? *raises hand***

**This was possibly one of the hardest chapters for me to write so far. The strangest thing, though, is that I don't know why. I'm sure I'll find out the reason eventually.**

**Also, plot whiplash kicked in a bit. I don't think even I saw this one coming until I wrote it. I hope it didn't break some people's necks!**

**Regardless, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! Cheers!**


	4. Our Stark Discoveries

**Author's Notes: Wriggle seems to be getting more pensive. I guess you could say that she's really been kicking it into high gear to figure out what exactly is going on.**

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><p><em>Mysty cleared her throat, which sounded extremely raspy. Her voice was really off today for some reason, so I guess that's understandable. As I awaited the first note of her song, I felt something odd. Something, though I don't know exactly what, wasn't right. She opened her mouth, and right as I thought she was about to sing the first note…<em>

…_everything went black. I couldn't feel anything._

_~Please believe me! Please believe me!~_

_I could hear her song, but I couldn't make it stop. It just kept repeating over and over and over again. I couldn't get out. I was trapped in darkness; darkness devoid of everything but that endlessly repeating phrase…_

* * *

><p>I must have passed out, because the next thing I remember was waking up in that same clearing. The stand was still empty; its lights were off. The moon had just risen up across the tree canopy, illuminating the area with a pale light. Silence filled the area, but nothing really seemed different. Was it all just a bad dream?<p>

The only way I could find out is if I talked with Mysty. The only problem with this, however, was that she wasn't here. Lucky me.

I immediately started walking towards Alice's house, which seemed like the best place to start looking. After all, Mysty was supposed to be working there. I didn't really know where it was, so I just went in the direction that she and Alice had gone yesterday. I'm sure that if I keep walking on that one path, I'll get there eventually.

On the way there, I strained myself to remember what exactly happened earlier today. Mysty was trying to get me to believe that she could sing again, but that's all I can remember. As impossible as that story sounds, I have to believe her. She is my best friend, after all!

* * *

><p>Getting to Alice's house didn't take too long. It was about a half-hour walk from the stand, if I can trust myself to keep track of time well. It seemed like something bad had happened, because I could hear shouts of frustration coming from inside. The only way to find out is to go in myself, and that's exactly what I intended to do.<p>

I knocked twice on the large, wooden door. Nobody came to get it.

"Hey! Anyone want to open the door?" I shouted, hoping that they would hear me.

I knocked twice more, but there still wasn't any response. The yelling inside was probably drowning out my feeble attempts to grab their attention. Growing impatient, I opened the door myself. So much for being polite.

Inside, I saw an odd scene. Alice was sitting down on the couch reading a large yellow book, which seemed normal. What wasn't normal was Marisa, who was flailing around angrily while being restrained by a large number of Alice's dolls. I counted twelve of them, all of which were doing a good job holding her back. Because of Marisa's loud yelling, it makes sense that neither of them noticed that I had entered the room.

"What's with you Alice? Can't you see that you're not thinking straight?" shouted Marisa at an almost deafening volume.

"If anyone's gone off the deep end, it's you." Alice replied calmly as she flipped the page. She didn't seem too bothered by Marisa's comments.

"Don't give me that, da ze! You were passed out on the floor when I came back! What did she do to you?"

Well there's my answer; Mysty was right after all. Apparently she had sung a song for Alice, and Alice had blacked out because of this. I guess this is the same thing that happened to me, even if I can't remember it too well.

"She didn't do anything to me, Marisa. You're simply overreacting."

"Overreacting? Then why don't you tell me happened?"

"I don't remember. I must have fainted or something, that's all."

"Exactly! Alice, can't you see that I'm worried about you? Can't you see that something about you has changed?"

"The only thing that I see right now is an annoying black-white trying to steal my precious time from me." Alice said, putting an emphasis on 'steal'.

"You know what? Fine! I don't give a shit anymore! Just let me go!"

Alice snapped her fingers, to which her dolls let go of Marisa. The witch stormed out the door and right past me as if she didn't notice I was here.

"I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy with yourself!" Marisa repeated, before slamming the door behind her.

The room immediately fell silent. What was that all about?

"Well I'm glad that's over with." Alice said to herself as she flipped the page.

Something just didn't seem right. Alice's dolls could feel it too, I guess, since they were hovering around Alice anxiously. They looked with concern as Alice continued to leaf through her book.

"Alice?" I asked quietly as I walked over to her.

"Hm? Who is it?" Alice asked. She didn't even look up.

"It's Wriggle. You met me at the lamprey stand, remember?"

"Oh, right. You were the one who didn't say anything the whole night. What brings you here?"

"Um…have you seen Mysty? She seems to have gone missing."

"She was here last night, but she disappeared. I can't imagine why..."

"Oh. Sorry for wasting your time then." I said as I began to walk towards the door again.

"Hold on, are you going around looking for her?"

I stopped and turned back around. Alice put a small piece of paper in her book, closed it, and put it down next to her on the couch.

"Yeah, I have to find her so that I can ask her something."

"Sure, I'll help." she said with a forlorn sigh.

I don't remember asking her for help, but beggars can't be choosers. I guess that I'll take whatever assistance she can offer me at this point.

"You really should have something to eat first, don't you think?" asked Alice as she got up from the couch.

"That would be nice. I am kind of hungry."

Alice walked over and sat down at a table in the corner of the room. Two of her dolls carried over two plates of rice with some sort of fish on top and placed both plates on the table. It smelled really good, just like every other plate of food that was ever put in front of me.

"I hope you like fish and rice. I made it for Mystia, but she just vanished before she could eat any. It's a shame, really."

I walked over to the dining table and sat down in a wooden chair right in front of one of the plates. It didn't feel nearly as hard as I thought it would be. A pair of wooden chopsticks was already set out too, which I promptly picked up.

Alice just stared at her food for a while, probably not thinking too much of anything. I was too busy stuffing down my meal to even care, at this point. What can I say? It was really delicious!

After quickly cleaning off my plate, I looked back at Alice. She still hadn't touched her food.

"Hey Alice. What were you and Marisa arguing about earlier?"

Alice looked up at me for a second before picking up her chopsticks and grabbing a piece of fish with them. Apparently, she had just been daydreaming.

"Oh, you heard that? Don't worry, it's nothing that concerns you." she said as she took a bite.

"Are you sure? If it had something to do with Mysty, I'd like to know about it."

"Like I said, it's nothing that concerns you. Don't worry about it."

I wasn't going to get anywhere with this interrogation. Alice just didn't seem to want to talk about it. You know what that means…

"Do you mind if I take a look around the house then? It's really pretty." I said, trying to think of some compliment to loosen her up. If it worked for Mysty, it should work for me.

"Thanks. You can look around anywhere you want, except upstairs." she said as she continued to eat.

Aha! If I'm correct, the answer to my questions must be upstairs. But how am I going to get upstairs without alerting her?

I walked slowly and quietly towards the staircase. A couple of her dolls flew right up next to me, probably knowing what I was about to do. They tugged at my pants, attempting to grab my attention. I put my index finger up to my lips as I turned and looked down at them. What was odd, though, was that they had worried and helpless looks on their faces. I sensed that they were concerned about Alice just like Marisa was, except in a less violent way. Were they on my side?

I patted one on the head, which turned its anxious look into a small smile. All four of them, realizing that I was their friend, flew out in front of me and up the stairwell. Luckily for me, it turns out that they're on my side.

Because her dolls had given me their approval, I guess it's alright to go upstairs as long as Alice doesn't notice. Luckily for me, she was staring blankly at her food again. She must have too many dreams if she can't listen to them all at night.

I slowly climbed the spiral stairwell, making sure to stay as quiet as possible. It wasn't very long, since it only went up to the second floor. There were a couple of squeaks and crunches, but everything was alright for the most part. I met the dolls at the top of the stairs, which were more than eager to show me around.

The first thing that I noticed was a large, dark-brown desk with various clothing materials and threads on it on the right side of the room. This must be where she makes her dolls. Alice's dolls, however, didn't find this part particularly interesting. They were, instead, attracted to a small stage off to the left.

The stage showed a familiar scene from the human village. One of the dolls was dressed up in a frilly white dress with a white gown over its face while the other was in a stunning black tuxedo; it was a wedding scene. The identity of the two dolls, however, caught me by surprise: Alice was dressed in the gown and Marisa was in the tuxedo.

Wasn't Alice just having a heated argument with Marisa a second ago? She even used her dolls to restrain her while she was charging in. Is this how Alice really feels about Marisa? Does she still love her despite all this?

Even if this is only a reenactment, it alerted me to Alice's passionate but hidden love for Marisa. If this is true, then the argument must have been about their relationship. It all makes sense now!

Confident in my discovery, I looked back at the dolls. They had brought me something new: a small green bottle. This was the same type of bottle, I believe, that Alice's throat medicine was in. It didn't look very special, probably because it was just a plain, green bottle, but I took it with me just in case.

I went back downstairs with the bottle in hand. Alice's dolls followed me with eager looks on their faces. They probably wanted to know how I was going to handle these discoveries.

Alice was still sitting there, staring at her food. I'm starting to worry about her. She didn't seem that spacey last night when she had lamprey with Yuuka. Maybe I'm just over thinking this…

There was, however, still one little thing that I wanted to look at: the book she had been reading during her fight with Marisa.

I picked up the yellow book that she had been reading earlier. I can't read very well, just like Mysty, but hopefully I'd be able to read enough so that I could find out what was keeping her so unaffected by Marisa's harsh remarks. I opened the book, removed the small piece of paper and stared at the pages for a bit.

Wait...this can't be right. I quickly flipped through the pages, but I kept seeing the same thing:

They were all blank.

I quickly stuffed the bookmark back into the book and placed it right back where it was. This is really odd. Why would she be reading a blank book?

I had to put the pieces together somehow. The wedding scene, the fight, the medicine, the book…none of them fit together in a way that made any sense. The only other option, I determined, was to confront Alice with these discoveries. Hopefully I'd get the information I needed.

* * *

><p>I walked back over to the table and sat down in the same spot as before.<p>

"Hey Alice, I have a question for you."

Alice snapped back into reality and grabbed another piece of fish off of her plate.

"I'm all ears." she replied.

"Have your dolls ever disobeyed you? Have they ever fought with you?"

"First of all, that was two questions, not one. Second, the answer to both of your questions is no. I made them that way for reasons that even you could understand."

"If they obey you without thinking about it, then they won't ever fight with you. It's one less thing to deal with, right?"

"That's a naïve view of it, but sure; that sounds about right." she responded calmly.

Now that I think about it, Alice seems like a generally calm person as long as you don't make insulting remarks to her. Yuuka knew what buttons to press to make Alice angry, as she proved last night at the lamprey stand. This fact, however, made the situation at hand even harder for me to understand. If Marisa was making insulting comments to Alice, wouldn't she have flared up? Oh well, there's only one way to find out.

"Alice, that's cowardly of you. Isn't it unfair to the dolls that you took away their ability to disagree and challenge your authority?"

Alice paused for a second. The dolls that had followed me upstairs were now hovering around the table, fearing Alice's reaction. They knew what was going on, but they knew there was nothing they could do about it.

"You're wrong, so let me explain it this way." Alice responded in a confident tone. "As a great person once said, 'You can't miss something that you never had'. If they've never had the ability to defy me, then they're not missing out on anything."

This was getting uncomfortable. If I pressed this any farther, there was a good chance that I might get angry instead of her. That wouldn't help me, unfortunately, so I decided to change the subject.

"Mysty said that you gave her some medicine for her throat. What exactly is in that drug?"

"Hm? It's just a little bit of healing magic that Marisa made. It's not too strong, but it'll help soothe some pains. Why? Do you want some?"

This medicine might have messed with her throat. That should explain everything, but I'm grasping for straws. I'm sure that some useful information will come out of all of this if I just keep asking questions.

"No thanks. I do have another question for you though."

"Jeez, you're full of questions. Go ahead, I'm listening."

"When exactly did Mysty run away?"

"The dolls were making dinner for her." Alice stated. "I asked her to sing a song for me, but then I must have passed out. When I woke up, Marisa was hovering over me uncomfortably and Mystia was gone. That's about it. Why do you want to know?"

"The exact same thing happened to me last night! This is too odd. It must have something to do with Mysty's singing…but I can't figure out what."

"Probably not." she said as she started eating again. "I must have just been really tired, that's all. It wasn't anything major."

Alice sounded like she wasn't going to believe me. It seems that I've gotten all the information I can out of her, and I really didn't learn anything that I hadn't already known before I came. So much for that.

"Never mind, I should probably start the search. Thanks for the meal, and I guess I'll see you arou…"

Suddenly, the front door swung open with a thud. It was Marisa, again.

"Oh look, Marisa's back. Did you have a change of heart?" Alice asked calmly without looking up from her fish.

"I just forgot my broom, da ze." she said in a bashful voice.

Marisa quickly ran upstairs and returned with a large broom. It looked like something you'd find in Kourindou, a small curio shop run by one of the only males in Gensokyo. It's full of old and sometimes odd items from places I've never even heard of. I really should go there again sometime soon.

"How didn't you notice that you had forgotten your broom? Were you really that upset?" asked Alice.

"I wasn't upset, I was concerned! You've changed, Alice."

Alice abruptly got up from the table, still not finished with her meal. She turned towards Marisa, who was standing right in front of the door.

"You just can't accept the truth, can you? Is it too much for me to be happy? Is it?" Alice said in an agitated tone.

"Stop it! Stop lying to yourself! You know that's not true!" Marisa responded desperately.

That was the final straw. Her face turned a very dark and frightening shade of red as she tightened her fists and clenched her teeth together. In a matter of seconds, Alice completely lost all of her composure. In other words, she exploded.

"Don't try and tell me how I should feel!" she exclaimed with ferocity. "It's Mystia that I love, not you! Now get the hell out of my house!"

Marisa didn't respond. She looked like she was about to cry, which is really saying something considering her usually confident and aloof personality. Without saying another word, she turned walked out the door, slamming the door behind her as she left. I can't help but feel sorry for her; I don't think that I could deal with that kind of rejection.

As I stood there trying to make sense of the situation, Alice sat back down in her chair, picked up her chopsticks, and continued to eat as if nothing had happened. Something was definitely wrong here. From what I've been able to gather, Mysty's song has to be to blame for this incident! I'm sure of it! She sung a song about love to Alice, which caused Alice to forget her love for Marisa and turn to Mysty for romance. This can only mean one thing:

Mysty's song must have caused Alice to fall in love with her.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

19 April, 2011

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: No Mystia in this chapter? What has the world come to?<strong>

**This was a fun chapter to write, except for the imagery and descriptions. It's really easy to overwrite, especially in these scenarios. I have to keep in mind that Wriggle thinks about the questions and the problems more than she looks around and admires the scenery. She has gotten less idiotic though, which I guess is expected by this point.**

**Anyways, I hope that you all will keep reading! Cheers!**


	5. Our Adamant Report

**Author's Notes: The air is getting thick with hatred and angst. At least, that's the effect that I'm getting as I'm writing this. This chapter might be a bit more whimsical, so that's a nice breather, huh?**

* * *

><p><em>As I stood there trying to make sense of the situation, Alice sat back down in her chair, picked up her chopsticks, and continued to eat as if nothing had happened. Something was definitely wrong here. From what I've been able to gather, Mysty's song has to be to blame for this incident! I'm sure of it! She sung a song about love to Alice, which caused Alice to forget her love for Marisa and turn to Mysty for romance. This can only mean one thing:<em>

_Mysty's song must have caused Alice to fall in love with her._

* * *

><p>The room was painfully silent after Marisa left. Not even Alice's dolls were making any noise. They were probably as surprised as I was at Alice's sudden burst of anger.<p>

"I think that I should leave." I said in a hushed tone as I neared the door. "Good night."

Alice didn't respond. I wasn't really expecting her to, but a simple goodbye would have been nice at this point. Then again, she did just reject one of the people closest to her: a partner who had been with her through thick and thin multiple times. She must regret doing that to her friend, right?

Without a word, I exited Alice's house and looked up at the sky. The nearly full moon is still high in the sky, so I guess it's still about halfway into the night. Suddenly, I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before. There was an odd scent of flowers hanging about the air. Are there some groups of flowers here that I didn't notice before?

The scent made me flash back to my night with Yuuka. Despite what she did to me, I can't let go of her allure. There was something about her that just...wouldn't let go of me. Am I better off this way? Probably. All I can say is that I've never felt anything like it, not even with the prettiest youkai like Mysty, Eirin, and Alice. I should really go talk to her again sometime...

"Ayayayaya!" exclaimed a voice from high up in the sky. "The pure and honest Shameimaru here!"

With my pleasant thoughts interrupted, I looked up into the sky and noticed a crow tengu flying down towards us. Great, this is just what I needed.

She had shoulder-length black hair that was adorned by a small red hat. She was wearing a long white blouse and a knee-length black skirt, both of which flowed gracefully in the wind. Also, she had a camera tied to a string around her neck and was carrying a small notebook with a pen attached to it.

"Aya, what are you doing here?"

Aya is a reporter for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper, a gossip-ridden newspaper that she reports for, writes for, prints, and distributes mostly by herself. It's a tough job for her, but it's even tougher on the readers. The only reason I really care is because she wrote an article about Mysty and her stand a while back, which wasn't really that bad. It was a bit slanderous, but not that bad.

She landed gracefully and walked up to me. She pulled the pen out of her notebook and flipped through the pages quickly, which told me that she was looking for an interview.

"Momiji told me that something interesting was going on here, so I decided to stop by. Who would have thought that Alice would rip out Marisa's heart in cold blood?" she exclaimed.

I let out a long sigh. Momiji Inubashiri, a close friend and comrade of Aya who has the ability to see over great distances, is a white-wolf tengu that I met once when she was delivering papers to the human village. In other words, Momiji helps out whenever Aya's busy getting her next scoop. I'd much rather talk to her than Aya at this point, but I guess it can't be avoided.

"Now where did you hear that?"

"I heard it from Marisa. She has a problem with thinking out loud while she's flying, but that's fine by me. Actually, it's more like shouting out loud, but you get the picture." Aya noted.

Aya talks a lot. In fact, she almost always talks way too much. This, combined with her disregard for personal privacy, make her one of the least-liked youkai in Gensokyo. She doesn't mean harm, but her journalistic instincts often take over her rational thoughts. In other words, I really don't want to deal with her right now.

"You do realize how late it is, right? Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?"

"The news never sleeps, so why should I?" she responded with an energetic laugh. How annoying...

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"No, not really. You're my target now, so you better tell me everything you know!"

Great! How do I get out of this situation? I've never been on the receiving end of one of Aya's interviews, but I've heard about how brutal they can be. You're lucky if you get away with just a panty shot...

"Alright, I'll let you in on it. No point in having a conflict, right?"

"Oh really?" she responded. "That was much easier than I ex..."

"Not so fast, Aya." I interrupted. "I need you to do something for me first."

"And why would I do that?" asked Aya as she gave me an annoyed glare.

"First of all, this is a really good story that you won't want to miss. Second, it's a really simple task. Third, I'm wearing pants."

Aya paused and thought for a bit. I guess she was running through her options, even though she didn't really have much of a choice.

"What would you want me to do?" she asked.

I'm surprised that she's actually going along with this. Usually she just takes some pictures and then makes the article out of thin air. Should I be worried about this change in behavior?

"All I want you to do is help me find Mystia Lorelei."

Aya's face lit up. Apparently she liked my end of the deal.

"That's all? Great! If you'll hold on for just a second..."

Aya crouched down and then suddenly sprung up into the air with tremendous force. All that was left was a white streak across the sky towards the east. I believe that she took off towards Youkai Mountain, a large mountain that is the home to numerous gods and kappa. A lot of the tengu are stationed there too, so I guess that she'll be asking for Momiji's help again.

If Aya is going to help me find Mysty, it would only make sense to bring Alice. Hopefully, Mysty could sing to her again and fix this mistake. With this in mind, I walked back into Alice's house in order to invite her on the journey.

* * *

><p>Alice had finally finished her dinner and was sitting on the couch. She was reading that yellow book from before: the one with blank pages. Her four dolls were busy cleaning the plates, and they were doing a good job of it too. It would be really nice to have dolls like that: ones who serve you without question.<p>

"Alice?" I asked as I approached her. "Do you want to see Mysty again?"

Alice jumped up a little bit, probably surprised by my sudden return.

"Eh..." she stuttered nervously. "Yes I would. Why?"

"Because Aya and I are going to see her. Would you like to come?"

"No...I don't think so."

Is she lying or is she just naturally nervous? Either way, my response isn't going to change.

"Let me rephrase that. You're coming with us to see Mystia."

"And why would I do that?" she replied defiantly.

"Because you love her and I'm sure that she loves you back."

I didn't really lie, but I didn't exactly tell the truth either. I know that Mysty sees Alice as a role model, but I don't know if she actually 'loves' her. At this point, I didn't really care as long as they both got together so that we could fix this mess.

"But..." she paused. I guess she really was nervous after all. I wonder if she had these problems with Marisa...

"Besides, that's much better than reading a blank book. Am I right?"

Alice slammed the book shut and placed it down beside her. I assume that she was thinking along the lines of 'How did she know that?'.

"...I'm still not going." she responded hesitantly.

I don't have time for this. Aya is going to be back any second now and it doesn't look like she's going to change her mind any time soon.

"It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to persuade you. Oh well! Have fun withou..."

"Ayayayayayaya! I'm back!" cried a voice from outside.

Right on time, of course. Aya has a nasty habit of doing that.

"See you later then, Alice." I said as I dashed out the door. I guess I'll just have to fix this some other time.

* * *

><p>Aya was standing in the middle of the opening with her notebook and pen in hand. This, coupled with the fact that she was tapping her foot on the ground, suggested that she was growing tired of waiting.<p>

"Took you long enough." she said impatiently.

"Did you find her?"

"Yes I did. So, about that interview..." Aya replied with a smug look. Something tells me that she wants an interview.

"Hold it, Aya. You take me to her first and then you get your interview."

She grumbled underneath her breath for a little bit. Even if she didn't like it, she had to do it if she wanted my precious information.

"It's only fair." I continued. "Besides, it's still not that hard of a task."

Aya slipped her pen back into her notebook, which she quickly closed.

"Fine Wriggle. You're a tough nut to crack, but sometimes I have to do whatever it takes to report the news. Since I don't think that you'd actually hold up well in a danmaku battle, I'll do it your way. Just try and keep up, alright?"

"Wait! What do you mean about me not holding my own in..."

Too late. Aya was already up and flying away towards the north at high speeds. I pushed off of the ground and flew into the air, but she was a bit too fast for me. Before I knew it, I could barely keep up with her. This seems familiar somehow...

* * *

><p>After about ten minutes or so, I saw her up ahead. She was just floating there, making a tapping motion with her foot in the air. The only reasonable conclusion is that she was waiting for me, which she was.<p>

"You're such a slowpoke! Can't you go any faster?" Aya taunted.

"Racing a tengu isn't exactly something that I do everyday." I responded. "Could you please go slower?"

"How can I possibly go any slower? I'm not even moving at all!" she said with a quick laugh.

I want to punch her so badly right now...

"Anyways, we're here." Aya continued. "She should be around here somewhere..."

I hadn't even noticed where we were. I looked below and saw numerous green pointy bamboo stalks and the human village in the distance. What would make Mysty want to go to the bamboo forest?

"Mysty! Where are you?" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

There wasn't a response. Can I really trust this tengu to tell me the truth?

"You better not have been lying to me, Aya."

"In the name of the honest Shameimaru, I didn't lie to you. I'm 100% sure that she's right here."

"Whether we want to or not, we're going to have to look for her on foot. I can't see through these huge bamboo stalks."

With that, I slowly dropped below into the bamboo forest. They were really sharp, so I had to be extra careful to make sure that I didn't end up as a skewered firefly. Aya, on the other hand, flew full-speed straight down into the mess. I didn't really care whether she got impaled or not at this point, but my gut told me that I shouldn't think that way.

When I finally reached the ground, I saw Aya waving at me with an energetic grin.

"You're too slow!" she cried as I walked up to her.

"Just shut up and help me search." I replied curtly. I don't have the time nor the patience right now to deal with her antics.

"Fine. How about you lead the way since you think you're so smart?" she asked with a smug look.

I didn't respond. I simply turned around and started walking in a random direction. If it takes me all night to find Mysty, so be it.

"Mysty! Where are you!" I yelled. "Mysty!"

"Wriggle? No wait, it can't be." I heard off in the distance. That was quick...

"It's me, Wriggle! Where are you?"

"You can't be Wriggle! Wriggle's dead!"

Wait...since when was I dead? I'm still here...aren't I?

I came upon a small clearing in the bamboo forest, where I saw Mysty lying down on the ground. She was looking up into the sky, probably watching the moon and the stars.

"How can I be dead if I'm right here in front of you?" I responded.

Mysty immediately hopped up to see if it was true. Not surprisingly, the fact that I was still alive made her face light up with a huge smile.

"Wriggle! You're alive!"

She ran up to me and gave me a very tight hug, almost knocking me to the ground. Now where have I seen this before?

"Of course I'm alive. What made you think that I was dead?"

"But I thought that I...killed you." she responded hesitantly.

Oh, so that's what she was thinking about. She must have thought that she killed me with her song. Luckily for her, that's not the case.

"You definitely didn't, but I do have something very important to tell you..."

"What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, but you need to be more careful now. Your singing can mess with people's minds."

"Hm? What do you mean?" she asked. I could tell by the look on her face that she was especially interested in this topic.

"You sang a love song to Alice, right? Well now she loves you."

"But...but..." Mysty stuttered. "That can't be true, right?"

"Of course it's true. You just have to trust me on this one, alright?"

"Okay..." she responded flatly. I still don't think she believed me.

"Now remember, you have to keep this a secret."

Speaking of which, where is Aya? Did she just disappear?

"There you are!" exclaimed Aya as she entered the clearing. "I knew that we'd find you sooner or later!"

Wait a second...we could use Aya as a test subject! This would be the perfect opportunity, after all...

"Mysty, why don't you sing something for Aya? I'm sure she'd like to hear your beautiful voice." I said. Hopefully, Mysty would be able to get my subtle message.

"But what if..." Mysty stammered.

"A song? For me?" Aya asked. "Sounds great! I can get the interview afterwords, right?"

"Sure. I'm not one to cheat a tengu out of a deal." I said confidently. "Go ahead Mysty."

"Well alright. Here it goes..." she replied.

I quickly covered my ears. Poor Aya never saw it coming.

I could see Mysty's mouth moving, but I didn't see a reaction from Aya. In fact, she was just standing there staring at her the whole time with an empty gaze. It looked exactly like what Mysty had told me earlier.

It wasn't a very long piece, but it felt like forever. I was afraid that I would take my hands away from my ears too soon, which I assumed would result in something not very pleasant. Even when Mysty's mouth stopped moving, I refused to uncover my ears. Even when the song was over, Aya looked like she was in some sort of trance. I wonder how she would react if I punched her right now...

Someone must have heard my thoughts, because Aya took a hard fall straight into the grass. It looked like she had simply fainted, but Mysty and I knew the real cause.

Mysty turned towards me and looked at me with a confused look on her face. Her mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear anything. Oh, I should probably uncover my ears now, right?

I took my hands off of my ears. The first thing I heard was Mysty's voice, but luckily for me she wasn't singing.

"Did...did it work?" asked Mysty hesitantly.

"I guess we'll find out soon. What did you sing about?"

"I sung about what first came to mind when I thought about Aya."

"And what was that?" I asked hesitantly. I already knew what she was thinking about...

"I thought about curiosity, and how too much of it can be a bad thing."

I don't think she could have picked a more perfect topic. If Aya stops being a nosy and annoying reporter, then Gensokyo will definitely be better off. Wait a second...that gives me an idea!

"So...What should I do now?" asked Mysty said as she stared down at Aya.

"Just hold on for a second and let me handle this when she wakes up." I responded.

I sat down in the soft bright-green grass next to Aya. She looks so peaceful. I wonder what it would feel like if I were in her position...

* * *

><p>About ten minutes or so had passed before Aya began to stir. She rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes, looking straight up at me. She didn't look different, but that wasn't what I was interested in.<p>

"Hm? What am I doing on the ground?" asked Aya as she got up.

"You hit a bamboo stalk and crashed into the ground." I replied. "You should be more careful where you fly."

"But..." she stuttered. "Yeah. I guess I'll have to go a bit slower next time."

I assume that she couldn't remember what exactly happened to her. Because of this, she probably couldn't think of a more logical explanation than the one that I gave. How else would you explain how you blacked out?

"Hey, do you want that interview now or not?" I asked as I got up from the ground. "It's only fair to keep up my end of the deal."

This would be the final test of whether or not Mysty's singing messed with people's minds. I crossed my fingers, hoping for a good outcome.

"Interview? About that..." Aya paused. "I don't think that I need it. I should really mind my own business more, you know?"

I was taken aback. Who would have thought that it actually worked?

"I agree!" I said as a glow of excitement showed on my face. "How would you like it if people constantly kept getting into your business?"

"I wouldn't like it at all." responded Aya. "Some things should just stay private, don't you think?"

This is amazing! Mysty single-handedly changed Aya's personality with a simple song!

"I agree, but don't you have somewhere to be right now?" I asked, hoping that she would leave us alone to talk.

Aya stopped and thought for a second. She doesn't really have that many activities outside of her newspaper, right?

"Shoot! You're right!" she exclaimed. "I forgot that I'm on patrol tomorrow morning! See you guys around!"

Aya took off in a blinding flash of light and wind. Did she forget that I told her to fly carefully?

I turned towards Mysty, who was sitting on the ground and running her fingers through the grass. I don't think that she was paying attention, so I guess I'll have to explain this to her.

"You know what this means, right Mysty?"

"Not really. I'm still confused." she responded. Her face told me the same thing that her words did.

"With this newfound power, you could make Gensokyo a better place!"

Mysty lit up. The prospect of a positive future put a wide smile on her face: something that I hadn't seen since her accident.

"What do you mean? Are you saying that I can actually be helpful?"

"Of course! You can improve relations between the people and youkai, stop fights, and stop yourself from ever being beaten up again!"

Mysty jumped up into the air in a flurry of excitement.

"I can do it! I'll make the world a better place!" she yelled at the top of her lungs with a huge smile on her face.

We all should have something to live for. She wants to help out of the goodness of her heart, and I can't blame her. It's good to see Mysty happy again...it really is.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

22 April, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: "KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE! The pure and honest Kerreb here!"<strong>

**Luckily for you guys, I won't be interviewing you...yet. HOWEVER, you mustn't forget to leave some reviews for me!**

**I might be delayed in writing the next couple of chapters. Exams are coming up for me, but I'll be kicking it back into high gear when summer rolls around. I have to make sure I do well in school, you know what I mean?**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed this installment! Cheers!**


	6. Our Playful Fire

**Author's Notes: This chapter is dedicated to the "Let's Danmaku!" forums. Not only have they been a major driving force behind my motivation to write this fic, but they are a bunch of great guys (and gals) as well!****Please go check out the forum sometime if you get the chance!**

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><p><em>"What do you mean? Are you saying that I can actually be helpful?"<em>

_"Of course! You can improve relations between the people and youkai, stop fights, and stop yourself from ever being beaten up again!"_

_Mysty jumped up into the air in a flurry of excitement._

_"I can do it! I'll make the world a better place!" she yelled at the top of her lungs with a huge smile on her face._

_We all should have something to live for. She wants to help out of the goodness of her heart, and I can't blame her. It's good to see Mysty happy again...it really is._

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><p>It was getting late. The moon had already begun to dip below the canopy of the bamboo shoots, and I was dead tired. Mysty seemed pretty tired too, for obvious reasons. Today had been a big day.<p>

"We should probably stay the night here. There's no point in going back to the forest." I noted.

"I agree." replied Mystia with a yawn.

"You and I are both tired, so let's go ahead and sleep, alright?"

"Okay. Good night, Wriggle."

Mysty walked up to a bamboo stalk and sat down in front of it. She leaned back into it and almost immediately fell asleep. I don't think that I'll ever be able to understand how she does that, not to mention after such a traumatic day.

"Good night, Mysty. Sleep well."

I flopped down onto my back and looked at all the stars. They may be tiny, but they're some of the most beautiful things in the night sky. I guess I feel like that sometimes. Even if I'm not too powerful or intelligent, I shine in my own brilliant way. Have I figured out what it is yet? No. I'm still searching.

After a bit more personal reflection, I finally closed my eyes and let myself slip of into the realm of dreams...

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><p>Dusk had come a lot earlier than I expected. The moon wasn't visible, due to the height of the bamboo stalks, but its light somehow made it into the small clearing. How does that work, I wonder...<p>

I slowly got up and walked over to Mysty, who was still sleeping. I grabbed her shoulder and shook her around a bit, hoping that she would wake up.

"Mysty. It's time to get up." I said in a soft and soothing voice.

She quickly awoke. Her eyes opened and looked straight at me with curiosity.

"Hm? Time to go already?" she responded groggily.

"Yeah. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a look around first for some exotic plants."

"Sure, go ahead." Mysty said as she stood up. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Alright, you can come too. Let's just make sure not to get too lost."

With that, we both walked off away from the clearing and into the thicker areas of the forest. I hadn't noticed any unique plants here yet; all I'd seen is, obviously, bamboo.

"So why exactly did you run away to the bamboo forest?" I asked, hoping to pass the time. "Why not go to..."

Suddenly, a large net sprung up from underneath us. It flung us straight up into the air, giving me a brief moment of nausea. The net then closed tightly, pressing us both into each other uncomfortably.

"Hm? Did I finally get something?" a voice said in the distance.

"What the hell is this?" I shouted. "Let us out of here!"

This is really uncomfortable. Mysty looks like she's about to cry, and I'm about ready to punch someone. Who the hell would have put an animal trap in the bamboo forest?

"Oh hey! It's you guys!" said Tewi as she entered the clearing. "Did you like my trap?"

I should have known. Tewi, the rabbit famous for tricks and pranks, was bound to get us someday. Today might have been her lucky day, but that didn't stop me from being angry.

"Alright, you got us. Now let us go!" I shouted back at her.

"Hm...I wonder what firefly tastes like." Tewi said, apparently ignoring my comment.

"I...I don't want to get eaten!" cried Mysty in a fearful voice.

"You're not going to get eaten!" I told her sternly. "Tewi's just playing with us."

"No, I'm dead serious." Tewi replied. "I've always wanted to have grilled sparrow."

"But...But...!" Mysty stammered.

Almost like a reflex, I covered my ears. Thank God.

Tewi instantly froze up, giving that same empty glare as Aya. I looked over at Mysty, who I assumed had begun singing. I was right. Her mouth moved with elegance, embodying the skill that she has in her art. I could see something else on her face that disturbed me, however. She was legitimately scared, even if Tewi was just joking. Mysty was way too eager to pull the trigger on that one. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't preemptively covered my ears?

Tewi fell to the ground, which meant that it was safe for me to uncover my ears.

"I...I don't want to be eaten..." Mysty repeated.

"Just calm down, nobody's going to eat you now." I replied with a soothing tone.

"Are you alright Wriggle?"

"Yeah, I didn't get affected. However, you need to be more careful with that! You pulled the trigger way too early."

"I'm sorry." she replied in a sad voice.

"It's alright. There's no point in worrying over the past."

"You're right." Mysty said. "I'll be more careful next time, I promise."

The strange thing was, despite the fact that Mysty is a very flaky individual sometimes, I believed her.

"So...what did you sing about?"

"I told her to stop playing tricks and setting traps for other people. It's really annoying and it hurts a lot."

It seems that Mysty made another smart choice. If we can get Tewi to stop annoying everyone, then the world will be better off! Now all we have to do is wait and see if it worked...

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><p>About ten minutes or so had passed since our victim fainted. My leg, which was twisted oddly in the netting, was starting to get numb. Luckily for us, it didn't take too long before Tewi stirred a bit and hopped up onto her feet in one swift motion.<p>

"Ugh...why do I feel like I just got hit by a train?" she asked herself out loud.

"Hey! You want to let us down now?" I asked forcefully

"Wriggle and Mystia? What are you all doing up there?" she asked. Did she really not understand the obvious reason why we were up here?

"One of your traps got us, so could you please let us down?"

Her face turned from a painful wince to a look of genuine surprise.

"Don't worry! I'm coming!" she cried in a valiant voice.

Tewi dashed over to an area behind us that I couldn't see, which is where I assume the trap was set. Suddenly, both Mysty and I plummeted to the ground and the net opened up easily.

"Ow..." lamented Mystia as she and I got up from the ground.

"Is this how you get your sick kicks?" I asked Tewi with a scolding tone. "You should really be more respectful of other living creatures, don't you think?"

"But...those aren't my traps. I would never think of doing that." she said with a melancholy frown.

That doesn't make any sense though. Tewi sets traps in the bamboo forest all the time! In fact, she doesn't hesitate to brag about how foolproof they are. If this is the case, did she just completely forget all about that?

"Oh really? Well I'm sorry for the confusion then."

"Apology accepted. I'll try and find that nasty trapper for you, so don't you worry about that!"

With that, Tewi hopped off behind some bamboo stalks and disappeared. I turned towards Mysty, who was brushing dirt off of her brown dress, and gave her a wide smile.

"You see? We're already making big changes for the better of Gensokyo!"

"What do you mean?"

"You just make a die-hard trickster give up on her pranks! That makes life for the rest of us a lot easier!"

Mysty gave me a large smile as she realized her good deed.

"Yeah! We're really making progress aren't we?" she said with excitment.

I nodded. If we keep this up, Gensokyo could become a paradise in no time! Everything would be peaceful and calm, without any fighting or strife. Sweet dreams are made of this...

"We should find some more people to fix!" stated Mysty with a look of hope in her eyes. "Let's go, Wriggle!"

At that, Mysty took off into the sky with a burst of energy. I wonder where she gets it from.

"Hey! Wait up!" I shouted as I pushed off into the air. She can really be a handful sometimes...

* * *

><p>It didn't take me too long to catch up to her; all she was doing was flying around excitedly in circles above the bamboo.<p>

"So, why did you choose to run away to the bamboo forest?" I asked as I flew up next to her.

"I just flew in a random direction. That's all." she replied honestly.

That sounds like Mysty. She's not one to really think through her actions, unfortunately, so I guess that means that I have to stick with her for now; that is, until I'm absolutely sure that she can handle the responsibility herself.

"You should probably stick with me for the time being. I don't want you to run off and get scared again."

Mysty faced me and gave me a look that a child might give a parent.

"Thanks Wriggle!" she replied with a large smile. "Now that we're up and ready to go, shouldn't we find a new..."

Suddenly, Mysty was interrupted by a large blast of flame that appeared in a part of the bamboo forest to the north. This doesn't look good...

Without warning, Mysty took off in the direction of the blast. I, obviously concerned for her safety, flew as fast as I could to catch up with her. If I'm correct, she's flying into a mess that neither she nor I would want to handle at this point. Did she completely forget that I told her not to rush into things like this?

"Slow down!" I shouted at her as she continued to increase the distance between us. "You don't know what you're getting into!"

"But there's trouble!" she cried. "We need to stop it!"

"Just stop and let me catch up!"

Mysty stopped dead in her tracks. Thank God.

As I neared closer to the scene of the explosion, I noticed two distinct figures. The first was a lady with pitch-black waist-length hair. She wore a dark-red skirt, imprinted with images of green flowers and leaves, and a pink long-sleeve top, which was adorned with many white bows where buttons would have been.

The second person that I noticed was a tall lady who was wearing a burnt brown shirt and dark-red overalls covered with some sort of paper charms. These charms also tied up parts of her ankle-length light purple hair, which was blowing around hastily in the wind. One other thing I should mention about her is that she was on fire. Yeah...she was literally on fire.

"Are you ready to admit defeat this time, Mokou? Or will I have to beat some sense into you as always?" taunted the black-haired fighter on the right.

"Not on your life, Kaguya! You're going to be my bitch tonight!" exclaimed the fiery figure on the left.

I don't think we could have picked a worse battle to come upon. Both Fujiwara no Mokou and Kaguya Houraisan are not only immortal since they drank the Hourai Elixir, but they also have an insatiable hatred for each other that has persisted for most if not all of their extremely long lives. On the rare occasions that I come to the bamboo forest, I almost always see them fighting. This battle, however, seemed a lot more intense than the other ones that I've witnessed...

"Fire Bird! Flying Phoenix!" shouted Mokou as numerous large fireballs flew out of her fingertips.

"Divine Treasure! Buddhist Diamond!" cried Kaguya as numerous bright blue lasers and colorful stars appeared behind her.

The fiery flurry fanned out into a wide arc, creating an almost unavoidable wave of molten fury. Kaguya's danmaku was simply overwhelmed by the assault as the fire absorbed every last bit and continued to scream towards her.

"Why are they fighting?" Mysty asked with a naive look on her face as she admired the danmaku.

"They both hate each other and they somehow find this extremely entertaining." I noted hastily. "We definitely shouldn't stick around to get burned, so let's go ahead and leave!"

"But couldn't someone get really hurt if this keeps going on?"

"Probably, but..."

"I'm on it!" she cried at the top of her lungs. I guess that's my cue...

I quickly covered my ears. Would they even hear the song over the roar of the battle?

Kaguya immediately stopped in her tracks and took a large fireball to the gut, at which point she plummeted to the ground helplessly.

"HA! That's what you..." Mokou exclaimed before freezing up and falling just like Kaguya had.

Shouldn't they have both been equally affected? Why did it take longer to work on Mokou?

Uncovering my ears, I flew down to look at the defeated immortals. Kaguya had a large hole with burnt edges in her pink shirt, not to mention that her exposed belly was pretty severely burned as well. Mokou looked normal, which didn't answer my question. Why didn't it affect her right away?

I bent down to look at her face, at which point I noticed that her long hair was partially covering her ears. From this, I can safely say that Mokou simply didn't hear the song at first due to the roar of the flames and the obstruction of the sound from her ear. In the end though, the song got through alright and did its job. That's all that matters, right?

"Did I do a good job?" asked Mysty as she landed softly behind me.

"Well you definitely got them to stop fighting." I noted. "What'd you sing about?"

"I told them to embrace their differences and stop fighting. That's all."

That was smart of her; I think she gets it now. The goal isn't to go around abusing your power, but to stop fights and rid people of bad character traits. Because of this, as long as she takes extra care with her new ability, I don't see any reason why I have to keep watch over her. She seems responsible enough to handle this by herself, and I'd only be getting in the way. After all, I'm the one who said that she couldn't handle this fight; but she clearly proved me wrong. Maybe I'm the one that needs to do some thinking...

"Hey Wriggle? Can I trust you with something?"

"Of course! We are best friends after all." I responded eagerly.

"Well..." she paused. "Could you stay here with these two? I feel like I should go back and see Alice. If what you said is true, I really need to confront her about this."

"I wouldn't recommend it. Are you sure you want to get involved in this?"

"I'm sure. There's something that I really need to take care of..."

"Oh, I get it." I replied. "You like her, don't you?"

Mysty's face turned a bright pink and she averted her eyes from me. It seems that I got it right.

"That's not it at all!" she exclaimed. "I need to take charge for my actions and fix my mistake. Besides, what would you know about love?"

She's right. I don't think that I've ever loved anyone before; but that doesn't include friendly love, which is the case between she and I.

"Now that I think about it..." she said as her face returned to its normal pale hue. "You've never been in a relationship before, have you?"

"No, I haven't. Don't get any funny ideas, alright?"

"But isn't there someone that you find even slightly attractive?" Mysty said in an inquisitive tone. She's starting to remind me of Aya...

Well there is one person who I just haven't been able to get off of my mind. Her flowery scent, her love taps...

"Yuuka!" I blurted out mindlessly.

"Yuuka? Really?" she asked as she tried to conceal a laugh. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks Mysty." I said as I gave a sigh of relief. It's good to have a friend you can trust.

"I should leave now so that I can get there before Alice goes to sleep. See you later Wriggle!"

"See you around, Mysty."

With that, Mysty took to the skies and flew out of sight. All that was left was to wait for...

"Ugh! My head!" cried Mokou from underneath me.

I immediately hopped up from my crouching position and backed away from her. She got up and dusted off her overalls before noticing Kaguya unconscious on the ground.

"Hm? What happened to her?" she asked as she pointed at Kaguya.

"You just blasted her with a huge fireball."

"Oh really? I did that?" she said with a genuine sense of confusion. Is she always this clueless?

"I couldn't have." Mokou continued. "Two immortals like us fighting wouldn't make any sense. Neither of us would die; it'd just be the same thing day in and day out. You understand, right?"

"I understand." I replied. In reality, I was utterly confused. It's as if Mokou had forgotten all of her previous fights with Kaguya...

"Well if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take Kaguya back to Eientei. Have a nice night and stay safe, alright?"

"Yeah, I will. Good night."

Mokou picked up Kaguya and marched off in what I assume is the way towards Eientei. I only know how to get there from the forest, sadly. With that in mind, I should probably go home soon; I feel out of place here.

I pushed off of the ground and flew up over the canopy of the bamboo stalks. I couldn't see Mysty at all, which I assumed was a good thing. What I could see, however, was the regular wooded forest that I had come to call my home. It's not that far away; it looked to be about a twenty minute flight.

Since I didn't intend on wasting more time, I started off in the direction of the forest. Hopefully I'll make it there before midnight so that I can make a special light show! I haven't made one in a while, now that I think about it...

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><p>My estimation was actually pretty accurate. It took about fifteen minutes before I reached the edge of the forest. I could smell that familiar scent of forest flowers wafting through the air. Oh, how I missed them...<p>

Suddenly, I found myself spiraling down towards the ground. I hit the ground hard; so hard in fact that I'm surprised I wasn't knocked out. Did something knock me out of the sky?

I managed to let out a stifled grunt as I got back up on my feet. I couldn't see very clearly, however, which was bothering me; everything looked all murky and blurry. What the he...

Before I could even put words in my mouth, I found myself being held up off the ground by a crushing grip around my neck. I couldn't make out the figure of my attacker because of momentary loss of eyesight, but whoever it was spoke with an extremely violent and hostile voice:

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO AYA!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

24 April, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: OK, I kinda lied. It's Easter Break, so I somehow found the time to write another chapter. Lucky us! I still have exams and I still have school unfortunately, so don't expect any more miracles, alright? THAT'S RIGHT SANAE, I'M TALKING TO YOU! *menacing glare*<strong>

**I actually found this chapter very easy to write for some reason. I wonder why...**

**Finally, don't forget to leave me reviews! If anything really stood out to you, good or bad, please let me know! *pleading* PLEASE?**

**Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this installment and that you will keep reading! Cheers!**


	7. Our Rash Revenge

**Author's Notes: The events from the past weeks have been severely hindering my ability to get work done. Please excuse the late arrival of this chapter.**

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><p><em>Suddenly, I found myself spiraling down towards the ground. I hit the ground hard; so hard in fact that I'm surprised I wasn't knocked out. Did something knock me out of the sky?<em>

_I managed to let out a stifled grunt as I got back up on my feet. I couldn't see very clearly, however, which was bothering me; everything looked all murky and blurry. What the he..._

_Before I could even put words in my mouth, I found myself being held up off the ground by a crushing grip around my neck. I couldn't make out the figure of my attacker because of momentary loss of eyesight, but whoever it was spoke with an extremely violent and hostile voice:_

_"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO AYA!"_

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><p>The grip around my neck was tightening. Something sharp, probably nails, were being pressing into my skin. The combination of surprise, lack of air, and blindness didn't help me at all.<p>

"Let go...of me..." I gasped.

"Not until you tell me what you did to Aya!" the attacker commanded furiously.

At this, my attacker threw me to the ground violently. I bounced once before ramming into something with my back, though I'm not exactly sure what it was. Before I could reorient myself, I felt the cold, hard edge of a steel blade on my neck. Fear naturally set in.

"Answer the question. I'm not going to ask again." the voice declared.

"Ugh..." I moaned. "I don't know...what you're talking about..."

"Stop with these lies and tell me the truth!"

"But I'm not lying..."

"Yes you are! I saw you do it! If you're starting an incident, I won't allow it. Even if you are an expendable youkai, I will treat you like the vilest of vermin." the voice stated solemnly.

Wait a second...that makes no sense. Nobody could have been close enough to see us without hearing Mysty. Not only that, but nobody out of her voice range could have seen us because of the tall and thick stalks. If I'm correct, my assailant can be none other than...

"This is unlike you...Momiji."

She didn't respond. I must have gotten it right.

"Fine, I'll tell you." I continued after catching my breath. "You deserve to know. Just give me some time to regain my senses, alright?"

In that instant, I couldn't feel the cold metal on my throat anymore. My sight was slowly coming back to me as well, but it was accompanied by a pretty fierce headache. Not only that, but my back and throat were subject to bouts of pain. Messing with Momiji is not a safe bet.

I looked up from my slouching position and noticed that I had been tossed into a tree. There was also a small indent in the ground, probably created from my crash landing. Standing in front of that crater, and thus directly in front of me, is a white wolf tengu wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with two large puffs on it and a knee-length black skirt with a fiery red trim. She has a red hat similar to Aya's stuck between her two wolf ears atop her pure shoulder-length white hair. She was also well-armed, carrying a menacingly-large curved sword and a small white shield covered mostly by the image of a red maple leaf. At this point, 'indimidating' would probably be the best word to describe her.

"Any time now..." Momiji said impatiently.

"You promise that you won't tell anyone, right?"

Suddenly, she swung her sword at me. Luckily, she left the point of her sword on my chest instead of cutting my in half. Thank God.

"You're not in a position to make deals." she said in an aggravated tone.

She was right. I have no advantage in this confrontation, so I'll just have to tell her what I know and hope that she backs off.

"Fine. Aya was being a pest about Alice's and Marisa's relationship, so I promised her an interview in exchange for finding Mysty."

"She came and asked me for help with that." Momiji interrupted as she stabbed her sword down into the earth next to her. "She seemed normal then."

"Right." I continued. "She came back and led me to Mysty..."

"You aren't telling me anything that I don't already know. Get to the point."

"...so Mysty sung Aya a song about what an annoyance she was and how curiosity is not always a good thing. This worked marvelously, since Mysty can mess with people's minds with her songs. After that, Aya flew off."

Momiji gave me a confused and angry look. Maybe she thought that I was lying to her.

"So that's it!" she responded energetically. "She and her song must be to blame then!"

In the back of my mind, I kept thinking that I threw Mysty under the bus. If Momiji goes after her with the same swiftness and brutality as she did with me, then Mysty wouldn't stand a chance. It would only be a matter of time before...

"Ah, there she is!" exclaimed Momiji in a proud yet vengeful voice. Apparently she had spotted Mysty, which I was immediately concerned about. What would happen if...

"Wait!" I blurted out. "I was the one who gave her that idea! Don't..."

I paused awkwardly as I realized my mistake. In hindsight, I think that I made a really stupid decision. As heroic and valiant as that seemed at the time, I couldn't help but feel like I had dug myself a hole from which I could no longer get out.

"So you're her keeper, huh?" Momiji asked as she shot me a curious but perturbed look. "At least you're honest..."

I breathed a sigh of relief. If anything, Momiji respects honesty and chivalry. If I could play to this, maybe I'd get out of this without any more unnecessary injuries.

"...but that doesn't excuse your actions. I want you to go fetch Mystia and fix Aya right now. Do you understand?"

She seems to have forgotten her anger too quickly, but I'm not complaining! At least she is being more reasonable now, which I'm definitely glad about. That's a lot more than you can ask from most people in Gensokyo: people who would just as easily exterminate you without a second thought. Luckily for me, I got one with a heart.

"Yes, I understand. Could you tell me where Mysty is, though?"

"You're not a very good keeper, huh?" she said with an elongated sigh. "She's at Alice's house."

That didn't surprise me, but I just had to make sure. You never know what she'll do with that flighty mind of hers.

"Thanks. I'll get right on that."

"You're not going right now?" she asked in a curious and confused tone.

"Seeing that you just assaulted me, I'd like to rest first. That makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, sure." Momiji replied half-heartedly. "I'm leaving, but you need to remember that I'm going to be keeping an eye on you just to be safe. Don't do anything stupid or we'll have to have another meeting like this. Are we clear?"

"We're clear." I responded with a nod.

With that, Momiji took off into the night. She left a white streak similar to Aya's, except that it wasn't as noticeable as hers. Maybe that comes with age and experience.

Leaning back into the tree, I still felt a surge of pain in my back. It didn't feel too severe, but it was probably something that I didn't want to sleep on. I flopped over onto my side and promptly feel asleep, exhausted by my encounter with the wolf tengu and hoping for a speedy end to this unfortunate incident.

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><p>I awakened with the cold dirt embracing me from below and the sun beating down upon me from above. The sun was straight in the center of the sky, which meant that it was midday. It's not my normal time to wake up, but nothing has really been normal lately. I realized that I had apparently overslept; my little rest had turned into a full day's worth of sleep. Just what I needed...<p>

A small mistake wasn't going to deter me, though. I still have Momiji on my back, so I better get this done quickly and efficiently. If we can just return Aya back to normal, I think we should be fine. I can't imagine anyone else coming to attack me any time soon.

With my priorities straight, I started off towards Alice's house. I felt too sore to fly, so I walked instead. The leaves, at this point in time, were finally starting to fall. They covered the path in a blanket of orange; certainly one of the most beautiful scenes in the forest this time of year. Unfortunately, the trees had begun to show their bare limbs, which is not an appealing sight. Not only that, but the temperature had dropped drastically; it was much colder than it was yesterday. Was winter finally coming around after all this time?

Before I knew it, I was at Alice's place. I can really get lost in pointless thoughts sometimes, which tends to make time fly. I'm not worried about that though, I've got plenty of it because I'm a youkai. Humans, however, aren't so lucky.

I walked up to the door of the house, which was locked for once. A small piece of yellow paper, attached to the door by a small nail, caught my attention. Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to read the note. It read:

_Marisa,_

_If you're reading this, thanks for deciding to use the front door for once. It took you long enough, didn't it?_

_I only have two things to ask of you:_

_1) I know it's hard for you to hold back your kleptomania, but please don't steal anything from me._

_2) Don't try and find me. I'm out with Mysty right now, and I wouldn't like to be disturbed._

_I will not be back for a while, so don't waste your time hanging around here. I know that you have bigger and better things to do than to haunt my place until I return. That shouldn't be too hard for you, right?_

_Take care,_

_Alice Margatroid_

_P.S.: If you aren't Marisa, then please keep this note on the door and disregard what you just read._

Damn, I'm too late. Now I have to go hunting for Mysty again. I'm getting really tired of this...

Despite this, the note struck me with an odd feeling. It was evident that Alice had no feeling for Marisa anymore, but there was something else. Was it...disdain maybe? Probably, but you can never be too sure.

"Hey! Move and I'll shoot!" cried a voice from high in the sky.

I turned up to the sky to see none other than the black-white herself diving back down to earth. Speak of the devil, it's Marisa.

"Marisa? What's with the hostility?"

"It's Marisa's youkai extermination month, and I need to vent a little bit." She responded sharply as she landed. "Care to be exterminated?"

She pulled out a small hexagonal box from her dress, something that inspires fear in many of Gensokyo's youkai. I've heard it called many different names, but I call it the 'spark box'; it's the most appropriate name because its primary function is to create the devastatingly destructive 'Master Spark', among other variants.

"No thanks, I'm not in the mood to fight right now."

"Did it sound like I was giving you a choice?" she responded with a wry smile.

"Yeah, it did." I responded mockingly. "By the way, Alice left you a note. You might want to take a look at it before you do something that you're going to regret."

"Me? Regret exterminating a 'stage 1 boss' like you? You've got to be kidding me, da ze."

Damn, let's hope I know what I'm doing...

"Just think about this for a second." I reasoned. "I can assure you that if you lay a finger on me, Alice will never love you ever again."

Marisa took a step back, gritting her teeth together as the fire in her eyes lit up.

"...Just give me the note." she said in an almost incomprehensible growl.

My bluff worked. Thank god. Does Alice really mean that much to her? If so, I might be able to use this to my advantage...

"Could you put away the spark box first? I don't want to get accidentally blasted, that's all."

She willingly stuffed the box back into her dress. She's really easy to manipulate, isn't she?

I ripped the note off of the door, leaving the nail to fall to the ground harmlessly. I slowly walked up to her cradling the note in the palm of my hand, being careful not to look at her straight in the eyes.

"Here you go." I said as I handed it to her. "Don't be too angry, alright?"

I backed off a little bit to give her some breathing room. Well, the real reason is that I didn't want to get punched...or kicked...or sparked; any of the three wouldn't have been fun.

As soon as she finished reading, she muttered something underneath her breath. She looked a bit peeved, which prompted me to back away even farther.

"Look, I know how you feel." I reasoned, trying to sympathize with her. "In fact, you and I have the same goal."

"I don't want to hear it, da ze." she responded sharply.

"That's just it, though. I don't want she and Mysty to be together."

Marisa immediately lifted the brim of her hat up and looked at me with an odd expression. It seemed like a mix of curiosity and anger.

"Wait...you don't?"

"You deserved to be with her, not Mysty." I lied with a straight face.

Marisa's face grew a bit brighter. It seemed now that she had an ally in this cruel twist of events.

"I have one question for you, though." I continued.

"Sure, fire away." she responded. Her voice sounded much less burdened than before.

I pulled the green bottle out of my pocket and held it out in front of Marisa.

"Remember this?"

Marisa looked at it for a bit with a blank stare before snapping back to reality.

"Oh yeah. That's some healing magic that I made a year or two ago." she responded proudly. "It's not as high quality as Eirin's medicine, but it'll get the job done on some small injuries."

That's exactly what Alice told me, but that doesn't really answer my question.

"But wait..." Marisa continued. "How did you get a hold of that?"

"Alice gave it to me." I replied as I stuffed it back into my pocket. "She gave some to Mysty too, since she had a sore throat."

Marisa bit her lip, apparently trying to hold back from saying something.

"Yeah well...good for her." she said with reluctance. She obviously didn't feel that way, but I wasn't about to point that out.

"Hey Marisa. I need to tell you something that I know you're not going to want to hear. Are you alright with that?"

"Yeah, I don't see how it could get much worse than it already is."

She was dead wrong.

"Mysty can manipulate people's minds with her songs. That's what happened to Alice."

"Wait...so it's all her fault?" Marisa replied as she clenched her fists. Apparently this had incited that dormant violent spirit inside her to take action.

"No, it wasn't. Just calm down and let me finish, alright?"

She relaxed a little bit and the fire in her eyes died down. Looking back, I should have just stopped right there and walked away. As much as she deserved to know, I should have thought about what I was saying before I let it slip out of my mouth.

"Marisa, I think that your medicine was the reason that Mysty got that ability."

"...What are you saying?" she asked quizzically after a brief pause.

"I'm saying that, no matter how you look at it, this is your fault."

Now that I think about it, this was probably the absolute worst time that I could have brought this up.

"That's not true!" she snapped at me. "Don't lie to me, da ze!"

"I'm telling you the truth. I just wanted you to understand..."

"Understand what? That I can't have a happy life with the one that I love? That it's all my fault in the end? Stop making my life a living hell!"

I turned away from her, attempting to take the edge off of my previous remark.

"I'm heading to Youkai Mountain." I said solemnly after a pause. "I'm going to go and clean up this mess."

Marisa didn't respond. She looked distraught, which is understandable. To be honest, I probably would have reacted in a similar way.

"I could use some help, though." I added. "You can tag along, if you want. It's always nice to travel with someone."

Marisa paused for a bit. I could tell that the guilt was eating away at her. I'm sure that she realized that this was mostly her fault, even if it was an indirect and unanticipated reaction to her magic.

"Fine, da ze. It's not like I have anything better to do..."

It was pretty obvious that she was lying. Marisa's main goal, or at least what I thought her goal was, was to make amends with Alice and attempt to restore their shattered friendship. It's a respectable endeavor, but I don't think that it's going to happen.

"Alright then. We just have to go pick up one more person..."

With that, I took off into the sky. Marisa, upon mounting her broom, pushed off and moved up beside me. Next stop: Youkai Mountain...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

7 May, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Wow, this took me much longer than I expected. Don't worry you guys, I'm still alive...sorta. Exams haven't been particularly kind, unfortunately, which impeded my progress on this project. Summer isn't looking to be any better, seeing as I just got a volunteer position at our regional hospital. Oh joy!<strong>

**It should, therefore, go without saying that this was an extremely difficult chapter to write. I had about a million different ideas shifting around in my head when I was writing this, and it might be rather scatter-brained as a result. Also, it's shorter than usual. Overall, I'm slightly dissapointed with it. I apologize.**

**Regardless, I hope that you enjoyed it! Be sure to stay tuned!**


	8. Our Brisk Hiatus

**Author's Notes: Now that I'm officially done with exams, I should be back to a regular posting schedule. I'd like to officially announce that, if you haven't noticed already, I'm writing a collab with another author named KuriaKai. It's under my stories, so don't hesitate to check it out.**

**One thing I'd like to point out, because I forgot to mention it last time, is that I use the "da ze" verbal tic of Marisa instead of the much more common "ze". The only reason that I do this is because I think that "da ze" sounds more rough than simply "ze".**

**Also, this is a much lighter chapter than previous ones. Don't worry, it's only a temporary hiatus...I think.**

**With the shameless advertising and other warnings out of the way, let's get back to the story!**

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><p><em>"I'm heading to Youkai Mountain." I said solemnly after a pause. "I'm going to go and clean up this mess."<em>

_Marisa didn't respond. She looked distraught, which is understandable. To be honest, I probably would have reacted in a similar way._

_"I could use some help, though." I added. "You can tag along, if you want. It's always nice to travel with someone."_

_Marisa paused for a bit. I could tell that the guilt was eating away at her. I'm sure that she realized that this was mostly her fault, even if it was an indirect and unanticipated reaction to her magic._

_"Fine, da ze. It's not like I have anything better to do..."_

_It was pretty obvious that she was lying. Marisa's main goal, or at least what I thought her goal was, was to make amends with Alice and attempt to restore their shattered friendship. It's a respectable endeavor, but I don't think that it's going to happen._

_"Alright then. We just have to go pick up one more person..."_

_With that, I took off into the sky. Marisa, upon mounting her broom, pushed off and moved up beside me. Next stop: Youkai Mountain..._

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><p>Flying is an interesting sensation. It feels like weightlessness, but you can also feel the rush of air under you. Unlike most people and youkai have come to believe, flying doesn't actually involve defying gravity. It has to do with air pressure and some other stuff, which can be manipulated with magic. Smart, huh? Oh who am I kidding, I can't say that I came up with that. Someone told me that once but I can't remember who. Oh well, she probably wasn't too important as far as I'm concerned.<p>

The air was colder than usual, despite the fact that the sun was out for all to see. This, along with the increasingly barren limbs of the trees, reminded me that winter was coming on in full force. Wait...didn't I already make a point about this? Ah well, let's just hope we don't run into some winter spirits any time soon...

"Hey Marisa." I said, breaking the silence between us.

Marisa was off to my side, holding one hand on the end of the boom while the other pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes. I can't say for sure, but I think that she was trying to do more than just block out the sun. Still, she looked pretty lonely. If anything, now would be the time to try and cheer her up some. Our mission wouldn't go too well if she blew up like she did last time...

"Yeah? What's up?" she responded. She apparently was too focused on something else to make eye contact with me. I expected that much.

"Do you remember that one time: the first time we met?"

"Was that when we fought in the forest? Oh yeah, I remember that."

"I got a Master Spark to the face, remember?" I said as I slapped my hand to my forehead.

"Yeah." she repeated, showing a bit more emotion with this response than the last one. "I probably didn't even need to use it. You were pretty easy to beat, da ze."

"I won't deny that. I mean, how could I win against someone as powerful as you?"

Marisa couldn't help but smile. Apparently, my attempts at flattery were working.

"Well that _is_ true." she replied proudly. "That miko has nothing on me."

Now's my chance. If I want Marisa as a steadfast ally, I'm going to need to execute this correctly. If not, I might end up as power pellets just like last time...

"But that makes me think...you might not have been able to complete the mission without Alice, am I right?"

And there was silence, as predicted. The brim went back down over her golden eyes again as she faced forward, assuming a position of feigned ignorance. Not what I was going for, but that reaction is better than blind fury.

"But you're the most powerful person that I know! I know you could have done it by yourself, probably even with one hand tied behind your back." I explained as I stuck my hand behind my back. Acting out my words is childish - I know - but I need her to think that I'm a silly bug just floating along in life instead of a vessel of melancholy intent on wrecking her life. My goal is to make her laugh, not to make her kill me.

"Yeah well, I guess you could say that..." she replied hesitantly.

"I know that you wouldn't go in this trip for me, let alone for the well-being of Mysty." I added with a tone of indifference. "So why follow me then? Is this about Alice?"

"...and here I thought you were some stupid little bug." Marisa replied with her characteristic sarcasm.

"I'm sure it'll all turn out alright. But in the meantime, there's no point in stewing over it. You might as well laugh than cry, right?"

As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like a hypocrite and a liar. I just told Marisa to laugh it off, while I'm the one who's been stewing over this since day one. I'm in no position to tell her any of this. If that's what I have to do to keep a friend, however, then I'll do it.

"Yeah, you're right, da ze." Marisa responded happily after a brief pause. "Thanks Wriggle."

"No problem. That's what I'm here for." I responded.

It felt good helping her out, even I did so in an immoral way. Does the end justify the means? In this case, yes.

"Marisa, I need to make a stop on the way there." I noted as I noticed the human village in the horizon. "I have something I need to get, if you'll lend me some money."

"Oh don't worry, just leave it to me!" she exclaimed vibrantly. "You forget that I'm the master borrower!"

'Borrowing' is Marisa's expression for stealing. She's a bit of a klem...kletpa...well, she steals a lot of stuff. Nobody is safe from her thieving tactics. That reminds me...nope, I'm good so far. She hasn't gotten me yet, and I'm hoping that she doesn't any time soon.

"Sounds like a spell card to me." I said as I swiped my hand up into the air, pretending as if I was activating a spell card. "Love Sign 'Master Borrower'!"

Marisa laughed. It was an honest genuine laugh, which I was glad to see. Her eyes, which had been devoid of any joy for the past hour or so, finally lit up. This was the Marisa I knew and...well, I can't really say that I loved her. Mission accomplished?

"Oh, if only that were true! Reimu would lose for sure!" she replied after her bout of hilarity had calmed down. "So, where exactly are we going?"

"Kourindou."

"Hm? Going to see Kourin are we?" Marisa asked sarcastically while poking me in the side with her finger. 'Kourin' is the affectionate nickname that Marisa gave to the owner of the store: Rinnosuke.

I couldn't help but think to myself that I overdid my pep talk with her. She might be too aloof now, and I'm not exactly in a playing mood to be honest. Maybe some other time...

"Well whatever you want to do is fine with me at this point." she continued. "Borrowing from Kourin is easy! All you have to do is ask, da ze."

"Oh look, there it is." I said as I pointed to a small structure off to the right of the human village.

"Upwards and onwards!" Marisa exclaimed as she took a sharp turn downwards towards the building.

"Um...Marisa?" I asked tenatively as I followed her. "Don't you have it backw..."

"Oh wait, I screwed up." she remarked upon realizing her mistake. "Onwards and upwards, in a flash!"

* * *

><p>Korindou, as I explained earlier, is an little shop located between the human village and the Forest of Magic that is known for selling odd antiques and such that drift into Gensokyo from the outside world. It's run by perhaps the only male youkai in Gensokyo, Rinnosuke Morichika. Well, he's supposedly a half-youkai but you get the picture.<p>

"Just leave it up to me, da ze." Marisa said confidently as she and I landed in front of the main door of the building. Simply put, Korindou is an L-shaped building surrounded by trees and various piles of what some people would call junk; though they're actually valuable antiques. It has a main door made of some kind of wood which is straddled by two small lamps to the sides and a sign reading 'Korindou' over it. Traditional Japanese red shingles complete the dark-red roof's design, slightly complementing the faded beige walls. Overall, it's a classic look: classic but deserted.

"Wait, so what _are_ we getting? she asked.

"I don't know what they're called, but I'll know when I see them."

"Well that doesn't help much..." Marisa replied in a mocking voice. "You can't borrow what you can't find, da ze."

With that, Marisa flung the door open with a loud crash and walked inside. The inside, similar to the outside, was cluttered with neatly organized piles of junk. There was room to walk, of course, but I'm just not used to seeing so many random things in one place. There was a counter off to the right and the hallway extended straight back before turning off to the left.

"I'm home!" Marisa shouted at the top of her lungs. "C'mon out!"

"Marisa? Hold on for just a second, will you?" asked a muffled voice that seemed to be coming from down the hall.

"Hurry up!" she replied loudly. "I don't have all day to..."

Immediately, a man wearing blue and black kimono-like clothing with white-ornamented black flaps extending down from an obi around his waist stepped out from the around the corner to the left. His silver hair is cut fairly short, about the same length as mine, and he wears some sort of small brown pack over his stomach. He also wears a pair of gold-rim glasses that frame his gold eyes.

"Since when was this your home again?" he asked with a sigh before noticing me. "Oh hey Wriggle. It's good to see you again. I hope Marisa hasn't been causing you too much trouble..."

"Me? Cause trouble? You've gotta be kidding me, da ze." replied Marisa in a light-hearted tone. "You should know me better than that, Kourin."

"Yeah, you'd think that I would by know." he added sarcastically with a slight eye roll.

"Hey now, no need to be like that." Marisa said disdainfully.

This is going to take forever if this keeps up, and I don't have time for that. I'm just going to enter the conversation really subtly...

"Rinnosuke, I'm looking for something and I thought that maybe you could help me find it." I said.

Marisa shot me a piercing glare, probably trying to say something along the lines of 'stop talking and let me handle this'.

"I don't see why not." he responded while pushing his glasses up with his middle finger. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for something that you can wear over your ears to block out sound." I explained while cupping my hands over my ears in demonstration. "You wouldn't happen to have anything like that, would you?"

"Hm..." he mused as he stroked his chin. "I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about, but I might have an idea. Follow me."

I turned back towards Marisa, about to offer her to come with us. Somehow, though, she was off investigating some pile of heck knows what. Knowing her, she'd be shoplifting again today. Oh well, it'd be best for me not to call attention to her at this point.

He spun around and walked down the hallway and around the bend to the left. I, following closely, had to move lightly in order to keep from stepping on something valuable. Only the gods know what would happen if I did that...

Immediately upon turning the corner, he pointed at a light brown box the the right. Rinnosuke calls it cardboard, but I don't really see a card or a board in it. Ah well, the distinction probably isn't anything too important.

"This box is full of things that Yukari calls 'headphones'. That's what you were referring to, right?"

I peered into it and, sure enough, I found what I was looking for; well, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it'll have to do.

"Yeah, I think this is it." I replied. "If you'll hold on for just a second, I would like to test something."

I picked one at random out of the box. It had two large black ovals, the rims lined with some cushion-type material, which were connected by a long strip of some black material that I had never felt before: I could bend it very far with little effort, but it didn't break like a stick. Also, the word 'SONY' (whatever that means...) was written in black on the side of both of the ovals. Yukari Yakumo, commonly called 'Granny Gap' or 'Ole Gappo' by some, must have pulled these in from the outside world; it's the only explanation. If that's true, then I'm pretty sure that these will do just fine.

I placed both of the circles over my ears and slid the bar down over the top of my head, making sure not to crush my antennae. They both fit snuggly around my ear, creating a cushiony barrier between my ears and the outside world.

"Can you hear me, Rinnosuke?" I asked, though I could only hear an extremely weak version of my voice.

I saw Rinnosuke's mouth moving in response, but all I heard was something that sounded like a low mumbling. This is good. This is exactly what I want.

After taking the 'headphones' off, I reached into the box and grabbed 3 more pairs, making sure not to grab any with the thin black strips coming out of them. Although both of them were the same shape as mine, one was colored a dull gray, another was colored a scarlet red, while the final one was an inky black. I was disappointed that there wasn't a green pair, but I guess I'll have to live with silver for the time being.

"I'll take these if that's alright with you." I asked, grabbing all three in one hand and looking back up at Rinnosuke. He looked confused for some reason, as if he was wondering why I would want something like that.

"That's fine by me." he responded. "Wireless headphones aren't antiques, so I can't say that I have any use for them."

"So can I have them?" I asked plainly. Marisa said that it was easy to get Rinnosuke to fold, so I'm not too worried about it.

"Sure. Why not?" he replied with a sigh. "I hope you aren't learning any bad habits from Marisa..."

"I heard that, da ze!" shouted Marisa from the front of the shop. "You know I'll return it all when I die!"

Another elongated sigh from Kourin made me think. Why is he such a pushover? Does he just let everyone come and take stuff from him?

"Why do you let people walk over you like that?" I remarked. "You really need to defend your stuff better."

"Yukari brings it over for free, and I don't have any use for it." he replied. "As long as they don't steal anything valuable, I think that I'll be fine."

"Makes sense to me." I replied with a grin as I turned back down the hallway. "I should probably be on my way, then. Thanks for the...uh..."

"Headphones." he said, completing my sentence. "Don't worry about it."

"Well, I'll see you around then." I said giving a quick wave as I backed away towards the entrance.

"Please stop by again sometime!" he replied as he walked farther back to the left. That was a fun encounter, I guess.

I got what I was looking for, and I didn't even have to pay for it! Maybe there's something to this 'borrowing' after all...

But I have other things to attend to right now. If we don't hurry up, we won't make it to Youkai Mountain before nightfall. I'm going to hazard a guess that arriving at night would not bode well for either of us.

"Let's head out, Marisa." I suggested as I started out the door.

"Yeah..." she replied slowly, as if focusing on something else.

I turned around and looked at Marisa, who was too busy stuffing some small trinket into her hat. I didn't care enough to stop her, honestly, though I did flick her in the back of the head for good measure.

"Ah!" she yelped in response. "Jeez Wriggle! What was that for?"

"You're too slow." I responded slyly. "I'm done here, so could we leave now?"

She immediately donned her witch's hat, which made a slight jingling noise as she put it on, as she rose from her squatting position. It was obvious that Marisa was shoplifting again, but Rinnosuke never really cared so I guess it's alright this time. Even so, it wasn't the most graceful of feats; then again, Marisa isn't really known for her grace.

"Yeah sure." she replied. "Let's go, da ze."

I know it's off topic, but do you know what I just realized? It's been two days since I've eaten anything. That's normal though; most youkai don't need to eat as much or as frequently as humans do. Magician youkai, such as Alice, unfortunately don't have this gift. Should I consider myself lucky?

We both walked outside, and Marisa grabbed her broom that was lying against the outside wall.

"Hey, wait." Marisa suddenly remarked as she pointed to the four pairs of headphones that I was carrying. "What do you need those for anyways?"

"They'll stop her songs from reaching my ears." I noted. "Besides, I think they're stylish."

I think what I just did is called 'stonewalling'. It's when you only tell a part of the truth, especially when the rest would completely change the situation. I left out the fact that I couldn't use my hands and block my ears at the same time. This could be a major inconvenience at some point in the future, so I thought that I should get some just in case.

"Really?" she asked. "Then why did you get four pairs?"

"Well, I have one for myself." I replied as I rested the silver pair on my neck. "Then there's one for you, one for the person we're about to pick up, and one for...uh..."

STOP! You can't let her know that the last pair is for Alice! I can't risk breaking this alliance now!

"...in case one of these breaks." I continued. Nice save, Wriggle!

"Oh alright." Marisa said with a confused look plastered on her face.

"Could you hold onto all of these for the time being?" I asked as I handed the three remaining pairs to her. "You can take whichever color you want."

Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I made that decision. Marisa was probably going to steal them, for all I know.

"No problem, da ze." Marisa responded as she wrapped the black pair of headphones around her neck. She then stuffed the remaining two in her hat, which surprisingly didn't cause it to change shape at all. How much can that thing hold anyways?

"Alright! Upwards and onwards!" I shouted as I took off into the sky.

"You screwed up." Marisa added jokingly. "Don't you mean 'Onwards and upwards!'?"

"...in a flash!"

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

14 May, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Did you guys like the lighter turn of this chapter? It's nice to have a breath of fresh air once in a while, I'd say. I didn't feel that it was necessary, but I don't want you guys to be drowned in sadness and angst for the whole time. That wouldn't be any fun for either of us!<strong>

**Also, I'd like to give many thanks to my reviewers! It's due to your questions, foreshadows, and suggestions that I can continue to make the story and my writing more profound. Stay strong guys!**

**With that, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Stay tuned next week for Chapter 9! Cheers!**


	9. Our Motley Alliance

**Author's Notes: I'd first like to thank "Anonymous Pyramid Head" for pointing out my spelling error in the previous chapter. I might get around to changing that sometime, but I accidentally deleted the chapter file from my hard drive. I'll do some copy-pasting later and fix it, probably later this weekend (Curse my laziness!). Thanks again, APH!**

**On another note, I should probably discuss how I treat the canon story lines. I assume, for the most part, that only a single character/team went out and resolved an incident. Any other canon interactions with characters not involved in the resolution of the incident will be ignored. I'm only doing this because it makes sense; all four teams in Imperishable Night couldn't possibly have resolved the incident in the same time frame.**

**Concerning the above statement, I have the Magic Team (Marisa/Alice) clearing up the events in "Imperishable Night" and in "Subterranean Animism". For reference in this chapter, Reimu was in charge of clearing the incident in "Mountain of Faith" (Marisa still knowns who Momiji is, though, because of Aya and the newspaper). More resolutions will reveal themselves at one point or another, at any rate. I apologize in advance to those of you who wanted Mysty's revenge against Yuyuko, but that hasn't actually happened in Gensokyo's history up to this point. Ah well...**

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><p><em>"Could you hold onto all of these for the time being?" I asked as I handed the three remaining pairs to her. "You can take whichever color you want."<em>

_Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when I made that decision. Marisa was probably going to steal them, for all I know._

_"No problem, da ze." Marisa responded as she wrapped the black pair of headphones around her neck. She then stuffed the remaining two in her hat, which surprisingly didn't cause it to change shape at all. How much can that thing hold anyways?_

_"Alright! Upwards and onwards!" I shouted as I took off into the sky._

_"You screwed up." Marisa added jokingly. "Don't you mean 'Onwards and upwards!'?"_

_"...in a flash!"_

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><p>Youkai Mountain is, as the name suggests, a mountain inhabited by numerous youkai. I've only been there once, in order to accost Aya for something she wrote about me (I AM NOT A GUY!). Anyways...various creatures, such as kappa, tengu, shrine maidens (yes, I consider them to be creatures just like you and I) and gods, make their homes here and have enjoyed a peaceful existence for the most part. Most of the youkai's faith goes to the trio of goddesses on the top of the mountain, or so I've heard from Aya's articles...<p>

The sun, at this point, had sunk about half-way down the sky as it cast its reflective rays of off the raging waterfall before us. I couldn't look straight at it or else my eyes might have turned to mush. Marisa didn't seem to have much of a problem with that, though, since she can always pull down the brim of her hat.

"Alright Wriggle, who are we here for again?" Marisa asked with a yawn. Apparently she found this trip somewhat boring, and I couldn't blame her. It's only really interesting if there's some sort of incident to tackle. Oh wait, this _is_ an incident.

"Momiji Inubashiri." I stated simply. "She's the white wolf tengu who works with Aya, remember?"

"We're picking her up?" Marisa replied in a doubting tone. "What would possess you to drag her along with us?"

"Well..." I paused. "Mysty's gotten to more people than just Alice, you know."

Marisa, in a display of skill that I'll probably never see again, hopped off the broom in a single spin and landed back on it while facing me. Not only did she do this, but she continued to fly straight ahead without any sign of crashing into anything. What a show off!

"Does that mean that Aya got affected too?" Marisa asked before breaking out into a muffled laugh. "Oh man, that's awesome. Serves her right!"

"Marisa, you do realize that there are probably people saying the same thing about Alice." I noted. "Please choose your words wisely."

"...So what's the plan?" Marisa responded after a brief pause. I obviously touched on something that she didn't want to talk about. My bad...

"Don't get caught by guards." I said with a shrug. "That's about all I have right now."

"Great plan!" Marisa noted sarcastically. "I couldn't have thought of a better one myself!"

"Oh just shut up, will you?" I responded jokingly. "Besides, it's not like we're gonna..."

"HEY! STOP RIGHT THERE YOU TWO!" cried a female voice from out of nowhere. A crow tengu scout, who was wearing a get-up very similar to Aya's, jumped out a ways in front of us with arms spread wide.

"...get caught." Marisa finished my sentence. "Smooth operation there, doc."

"Just give me some cover, alright?" I snapped back at her. "If you can hold them off for just a second, I can sneak away. Toss me the white headphones while you're at it."

"And why do I have to be the distraction?" Marisa whined back at me as she flipped around on her broom once again.

"Because you're the one with the firepower! Just do it!"

I could have just as easily taken care of them (I think...), but I'm the only one who knows Momiji's situation. If I leave Marisa to take care of that, then there's bound to be trouble. That's a risk that I simply can't take.

"Gee thanks, da ze. I'll do my best!" Marisa playfully replied as she pulled out the pair of white headphones and tossed them to me.

Knowing that Marisa's 'best' is extremely powerful and destructive, I should probably get out of here in a flash...

"Magic Sign: Milky Way!"

Just like that, a flurry of rainbow-colored stars shot out in an insurmountable barrage at the tengu scout. Lucky for me, she took it a star right to the face and looked to be very disoriented. Now's my chance!

Without hesitation, I left Marisa behind to keep up the distraction; she's a big girl, so she can handle herself...right?

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><p>I had already been to Aya's place once, so I knew where I was going. It was a simple square-shaped house built into the mountainside. Nothing too fancy: gray stone walls and a gray tile roof were the norm of houses this far up the mountain. If I didn't know any better, I could have gotten lost really easily. I guess I'm just lucky!<p>

The door was wide open, so I made sure not to fly in front of it and make myself seen. I didn't even look inside, for fear that someone would see me. Instead, I stuck myself up against the wall near the door. It's a perfect eavesdropping spot; seeing as how they left the door open, noise could easily come out unhampered. I guess whoever was in there wasn't big on privacy...

"...and I've got this issue being printed right now." a flustered voice noted. "I still have to get pictures for the front..."

"Please drop it, Momiji." said another voice. "Just because she doesn't want to do it anymore doesn't mean that..."

"I _will_ pick up the slack!" Momiji's voice shouted back. "I'm not going to let her dreams die because of some flighty night sparrow's lack of thought! Not a chance!"

Lucky for me, Momiji was already here. I was expecting to find Aya and then ask her where Momiji was, but skipping a step is fine with me!

"But Momiji, you know that this is bad for your health and your job. Don't you think that you should just let it go?"

"Were you not listening to what I've been telling you for the past five minutes?" she retorted harshly.

"I was, but you're not making any sense. With all due respect, Momiji, you're not doing yourself any favors trying to give Aya happiness vicariously. It's not going to work and you know it."

That seemed to flip the switch, as I could hear a loud thump followed by a sound of paper flying everywhere. Maybe I should come back at a different time?

"Shut up and get back to your post!" she sharply commanded. "I'm getting sick and tired of people questioning my motives! Just go!"

"Yes ma'am..."

A young wolf tengu emerged from the doorway next to me; I could tell she was young because she was shorter and her facial features were less pronounced than Momiji's, who is still a relatively inexperienced tengu. All of her clothing was the exact same type as Momiji's; but the colors were different. The shirt was gray and the skirt's hem flared out into white, not to mention that her fur way gray instead of white.

"Hey!" she pointed out as she noticed me sitting next to the door. "Who are you? Were you listening in on our conversation?"

Honestly, I looked like the most suspicious youkai ever. I had two unknown mechanical objects on my neck and in my hand. Who knows what I planned to do with them? Regardless, maybe I could play this up to my advantage somehow...

"Yes, but let me explain." I pleaded, hoping that she wouldn't slice me down right there. "I was supposed to have a meeting with Inubashiri-san earlier about these headphones, but she failed to show up. I simply came over to find out why, that's all. No need to jump to conclusions..."

I held out the pair of headphones for her to see. She looked somewhat bewildered but not too doubting. Since she didn't know anything about them, there was no reason for her to doubt my story...right?

"Oh really?" responded the tengu scout in a curious voice. "I don't think that she's doing well at all. Ever since Aya stopped writing for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper, Momiji felt it necessary to take the paper upon herself along with her normal duties."

Success! I didn't get beaten up or sliced down! That was easy. I just might be getting _too_ good at this...

"Is that so? Well then, thank you very much." I replied with a smile. "It's good to know that there are still some trusting tengu around."

"Yeah, I guess so." she remarked with a slight blush. "Please straighten her out if you could."

"I'll do my best." I responded with a confident pose. "See you around!"

"Right." she responded before looking back at me with her hazel eyes. "Hey, do you know what those noises were from a while ago?"

"What attack?" I asked nervously. This isn't good; she might be onto me! "I mean...I haven't heard anything. I've been here all day."

"Oh? Never mind, then." the wolf tengu responded as she scratched the back of her ear. "Sorry for the confusion and have a nice day."

Saved by naivety once again. Sometimes I wonder if I was ever this easy to trick. Oh well, that's a question for another day.

With that, the tengu took off with a lackluster exit. The white streak that followed her was even less vibrant than Momiji's. So it must be all about skill, huh? If so, maybe I could learn how to do that someday...

"My gods, what am I going to do?" Momiji asked out loud in a troubled voice. "How the hell did she manage to do all this without killing herself?"

I have to give it to her; Momiji gives her best effort on everything. At this point, that seems like a more negative trait to have. Then again, she now has all the more reason for her to join our squad. It's a win-win situation as long as I don't get beheaded in the process...

I rapped my knuckles on the frame of the door, making sure to announce my presence before I entered the square-shaped abode. From what I could see, which wasn't that much because of all the paper lying about, there was a large square desk in the back-left corner of the room and a small press in the corner off to my right. Momiji, who had been pacing in the center of the room when I walked in, had turned to face me with a less-than-welcoming look on her face. Let's hope that stress and anger aren't enough to make this wolf snap...

"You're late!" she snarled at me, showing her ridiculously sharp teeth. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Wait, you didn't notice me coming?" I responded with a hint of curiosity. I expected her, at least, to have seen Marisa and I flying over here.

"As you can plainly see, I've been a little too busy to watch the actions of insignificant fireflies." Momiji responded sharply. "Do you have any idea what the hell I've been through these past two days?"

"I think I can guess..." I responded sheepishly. "But that's besides the point. I have good news and bad news for you. Which would you like to hear first?"

"The good news, obviously."

Wrong choice. You should have picked the bad news first...

"Well, the good news is that I come bearing gifts." I said as I tossed the white pair of headphones to her. She caught them with little trouble, but looked extremely confused for some reason.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" she asked as she held fiddled around with them in her hands.

"I was just getting to that..." I replied. "They block out sound if you put them over your ears."

Without hesitation, she put the headphones over her ears and gave me a disturbing smile.

"So I can put them on, for example, if I don't want to hear your grating voice?" she said in a gleeful tone. By 'gleeful', I mean that her joy was being derived from manipulating me. Seeing that everything she's been through has been because of me, I can't really blame her.

"Yeah, sure." I replied with a nod.

"It seems that I've already found a use for these. They're just what I needed." Momiji noted mockingly as she rested the headphones on her neck. "So, what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that I don't have Mysty with me and we need you to help us find her."

Next time, remind me not to ask which news the person wants first. They always take it better if you give the bad news before you give the good news. I don't know why, but that's just how it works.

"I swear, I'm nothing but a tool for you idiots to play around with." she remarked angrily as she stood back up again, her expression changing back to one of annoyance. "Honestly, I don't even know why I haven't killed you yet. I could just as easily take care of this myself, not to mention the fact that you're not a very reliable youkai."

"You haven't killed me yet because you know I'm the only one who has domain over Mysty's actions." I retorted with a calm attitude. "And you won't kill me in the future because Aya won't ever be cured then."

"And I'm going to believe you because...?" Momiji asked as she placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"You don't _have_ to believe me..." I pointed out with a sly grin on my face; I knew that I was going to win. "You can kill me and find out for yourself. At this point, though, that wouldn't be a very smart idea. Surely you know enough to have figured all of this out by now!"

"Yeah, da ze!"

I spun around and saw Marisa, her smile reeking of 'that was easy'. Who I didn't expect to see, however, was Aya. She was standing behind Marisa and spinning a pen in her hand. As I later found out, Aya was one of the tengu on patrol duty during our little escapade. It only made sense that Marisa brought her along for the ride.

"And now Marisa's caught up in this as well!" Momiji noted in an agitated tone. "Honestly, why do you guys have to gang up on me? First you leave me to take over Aya's job, then..."

"Momiji!" Aya cried in disgust. "What _are_ you doing?"

"I'm salvaging the newspaper!" Momiji retorted. "It may not mean anything to you anymore, but it's still very important to me!"

"What would possess you to do that?" Aya asked quizzically as she walked into the abode. "I let go of it because it was a bad influence. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Yes, you've told me that a million times!" Momiji responded. "But that's not what you really want! You're being manipulated!"

Marisa nudged me in the arm, to which I looked up and saw an amused look on her face. How can she find this funny? I'm the one about to get chewed out, and I'm talking about genuine wolf fangs gnawing on my flesh this time...

"Manipulated? I'm pretty sure that I know myself better than anybody else." Aya noted confidently. "Who would want to do that to me anyways?"

"She would." Momiji accused sharply as she pointed at me. "There's the culprit right there."

Under normal circumstances, I might have felt threatened. Today, however, I was feeling a bit...bold. Let's throw caution to the wind, shall we?

"I am not and you know it." I responded obstinately. "Aya's normal as far as I know, isn't that right?"

"You little...!" Momiji sputtered as she grabbed the hilt of her sword.

"Hold on, Momiji. If something really was wrong with me, don't you think that Wriggle and Marisa would let me know about it?"

I couldn't help but smile at the comment. Momiji is the straightest shooter that I know, so it's pretty ironic that Aya would trust us more than her. Was this the true effect of Mysty's songs?

"...it's useless trying to reason with you, Aya." Momiji stated frankly after a brief pause. "Go back on patrol. I'll catch up with you later."

"No no no no no..." she repeated as she grabbed Momiji's arm. "I'm not going to leave you here to be consumed by this load of gossipy trash. You're coming with me."

Momiji flung Aya's arm off in a sharp motion. Aya bounced back away a bit and looked at Momiji with a distinctly disappointed look.

"The Aya I knew never would have said that." Momiji contended solemnly. "You're all but dead to me."

"I just want what's best for you." Aya said. "I don't want you to be consumed by this."

Momiji didn't answer. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that she realized the wisdom in Aya's words. Wait...wisdom in Aya's words? That's a first...

"...I'm too late, aren't I?" Aya asked with a hurt look on her face.

"Just let her go, Aya." Marisa suggested with a wave of her hand. "Let the naive puppy do what she wants. It's her life, after all."

"But..." Momiji stuttered. "That's not..."

"If you want to cling onto self-destructive dreams, then so be it. After all, I'm dead to you anyways." Aya warned solemnly as she walked out the door. "Just don't come crying back to me when you see the error of your ways."

With that, she took off into the sky with her characteristic vibrant streak of white. I hope that we didn't frighten Aya and Momiji too badly, but I needed to break the connection between them in order to get Momiji as an ally. Either that or immense amounts of desire for reform would do the trick.

"You said that you wanted my help?" Momiji asked, breaking the silence. "Well, I'm in; I'll do anything to fix this hellish perversion of Aya's character."

Success! Momiji has joined the party!

"...but don't think for a second that I'm happy about it! You got that?" she added with blatant resentment. "I still hate you, Wriggle."

"Feelings noted." I replied as I pretended to write something down in mid-air. "We should be going soon, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah." Marisa interjected. "So where are we off to, Momiji?"

Momiji tilted her head a bit, giving us a blank stare. Didn't she say that she was going to help us?

"Misty Lake." Momiji said, continuing the stare. "That's where Mysty and...uh..."

"Alice? The blonde girl with the red hairband?" Marisa asked, attempting to finish Momiji's sentence.

"Don't you think I know who that is?" Momiji noted with a hint of annoyance. "Regardless, it seems that your friends just made a trip through the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It doesn't look good from what I'm seeing..."

I don't get out of the forest that much, which would explain the fact that I've never been to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. From what I've heard, it's home to a charismatic vampire, a time-stopping vengeful maid, a solitary librarian, and a less-than-apt gate guard. Then again, Aya's articles probably aren't the best source of information concerning people's affairs...

Marisa, however, seemed immediately concerned. She took a step closer to Momiji, who at this point was still staring off into space. I assume that stare is the result of looking over great distances. That makes much more sense than what I was thinking...

"Are there any casualties?" Marisa asked in a worried voice. It reminded me of when she was arguing with Alice two days ago. Let's hope to the gods that we don't have another episode like that.

"Well let's see..." Momiji paused. "Remilia is currently talking with Sakuya, who seems a bit panicked about something. Koakuma is frantically shaking Patchouli, who seems to be somewhat disoriented. Meiling is, surprisingly, not asleep. Flandre is unconscious on the floor of the basement. Unfortunately, that's all that I can see at the moment..."

I didn't recognize a single name out of any of those. Marisa, however, seemed to cringe at every single one. She found Flandre's fate to be especially surprising, from what I could read from her face.

"Damn." Marisa cursed quietly. "It's spreading like wildfire..."

Momiji gave me a harsh glare, as if trying to say 'This is all your fault, so you better feel guilty about it'. I can't say that I agreed with her, but it'd be best not to anger her right now.

"Well then we better hurry." I suggested as I walked out the door. "Does everybody have everything that they need?"

Both Marisa and Momiji nodded at me before giving me a sort of suspicious look as they exited the building. If I had to guess, they were wondering why I was in charge. I would too, since I'm only a 'Stage 1 boss'. In comparison, Momiji is a 'Stage 4 Midboss' and Marisa is...pretty much everything. It makes sense that they wouldn't see me as the leader of the group...yet.

"Alright then, off we go!" I shouted at the top of my lungs while pointing off into the sky. "We've got a sparrow to find!"

"You better stop yelling and catch up, da ze." Marisa commented with a mocking tone. "We just might leave you behind!"

I looked up at where I was pointing, only to see Marisa and Momiji hastily flying away from me. The nerve of those two!

"Hey now! That's not cool!" I cried as I took off into the sky. "Wait up!"

With that, I took off behind them as we began our trip to encounter Misty at Mysty Lake...

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

21 May, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: The spelling mistake in the last line is intentional. I just wanted to clear that up so I don't get hounded for it in the numerous adoring reviews that you will be writing for me shortly. You will be writing some, right? RIGHT?<strong>

**So we now have a party of three: Wriggle, Marisa, and Momiji. Honestly, I had no idea in the beginning that it was going to turn out this way. Oh well, it is what it is: a ragtag group of a less-than-street-smart bug, a loose-cannon kleptomaniac, and a duty-bound over-worked soldier. What have I gotten myself into... *whining in the corner***

**Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a review! I'll see you all next round, right? I'm buying, so there's no reason for you not to come! In fact, bring your friends while you're at it! Cheers!**


	10. Our Lovely Brawl

**Author's Notes: Again, thanks to APH for pointing out my spelling errors. Good to see that people read the story that much in depth! It's a shame, though, that I continue to make such peccadilloes. Ah well, I guess I'll go over each new chapter a couple more times just to be safe.**

**This is the longest chapter so far in DtabtD! Just thought that I should warn you.**

**Also, I have something cool to let you all know. Chapter 9 of DtabtD just got 50+ visitors in 24 hours! Huzzah! Thanks again for the support and keep it up!**

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><p><em>"Well let's see..." Momiji paused. "Remilia is currently talking with Sakuya, who seems a bit panicked about something. Koakuma is frantically shaking Patchouli, who seems to be somewhat disoriented. Meiling is, surprisingly, not asleep. Flandre is unconscious on the floor of the basement. Unfortunately, that's all that I can see at the moment..."<em>

_I didn't recognize a single name out of any of those. Marisa, however, seemed to cringe at every single one. She found Flandre's fate to be especially surprising, from what I could read from her face._

_"Damn." Marisa cursed quietly. "It's spreading like wildfire..."_

_Momiji gave me a harsh glare, as if trying to say 'This is all your fault, so you better feel guilty about it'. I can't say that I agreed with her, but it'd be best not to anger her right now._

_"Well then we better hurry." I suggested as I walked out the door. "Does everybody have everything that they need?"_

_Both Marisa and Momiji nodded at me before giving me a sort of suspicious look as they exited the building. If I had to guess, they were wondering why I was in charge. I would too, since I'm only a 'Stage 1 boss'. In comparison, Momiji is a 'Stage 4 Midboss' and Marisa is...pretty much everything. It makes sense that they wouldn't see me as the leader of the group...yet._

_"Alright then, off we go!" I shouted at the top of my lungs while pointing off into the sky. "We've got a sparrow to find!"_

_"You better stop yelling and catch up, da ze." Marisa commented with a mocking tone. "We just might leave you behind!"_

_I looked up at where I was pointing, only to see Marisa and Momiji hastily flying away from me. The nerve of those two!_

_"Hey now! That's not cool!" I cried as I took off into the sky. "Wait up!"_

_With that, I took off behind them as we began our trip to encounter Misty at Mysty Lake..._

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><p>Since we had taken off ten minutes ago, nobody had really said anything. I could understand in Momiji's case, but I was surprised at Marisa's silence. Especially after I had loosened her up, I expected her to at least make a joke or make some prideful boast by now. That was...uncharacteristic of her. I can't really complain though, since I was having some unusual thoughts as well.<p>

I hate to say it, but I feel weak compared to my two teammates. I know that I'm physically weaker and possibly intellectually weaker, but I'm pretty sure that there's something else that I'm missing. Could it be reputation maybe? That's my best guess, anyways. Marisa is known by almost everyone in Gensokyo due to her participation in the resolution of incidents and her penchant to steal things from just about everyone, leaving most people with foul sentiments about her. Momiji, on the other hand, is revered by most of the younger tengu as the ultimate example of dutifulness. She took a character trait, honed it, and now people look up to her.

That begs the ten million yen question: 'What kind of a reputation do I have?'. Well, I get myself into trouble a lot, which I can't say that I enjoy. Up until just recently, I was definitely a follower and not a leader. What a puny list! It seems like youkai like myself don't really any particular usefulness in the world except to survive. Tough luck, but I guess that's just how it is.

"Hey guys," I said, breaking the silence. "How do you get people to look up to you?"

Marisa, who was to my right and straddling her broom as she usually does, let out a low whistle before turning to me with a sort of amused look in her eyes. Momiji, however, seemed a bit preoccupied with something, as her head was darting around quickly from place to place. She probably didn't hear me, if that's the case.

"Eh? What made you think of that?" Marisa asked. "Is Wriggle thinking of becoming more than just a little forest bug?"

"No, not really." I replied. "I'd just, you know, like to be respected a little bit more. That makes sense, right?"

"Sure it makes sense, but whether you can do it or not is debatable." Marisa responded frankly. "Besides, all I'm really famous for is being a very successful borrower, da ze. Oh, and my Master Spark has a couple of fans too, as far as I know."

Luckily, I'm smart enough to put two and two together. Marisa and I only differ in two aspects: she is wickedly powerful and she has a signature move. Other than that, I can't really think of anything else that separates us. Is power really what makes people famous?

"Thanks Marisa. I could really learn a lot from you."

"No problem, da ze." Marisa replied as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. "I'll be here all week."

At this point, we emerged over a large blue lake that was surprisingly beautiful. It was surrounded on all sides by various trees which were currently losing their luscious green foliage, and I could see a large red mansion on an island in the middle. The water reflected back the almost departed rays of the sun and made the lake glitter like the waterfall back at Youkai Mountain. To be honest, I like this view better. Don't tell Momiji, alright?

"Marisa! Wriggle! We have a bit of a problem here." Momiji said, snapping out of her fit of whatever she was doing. "We're going to have to postpone our trip to see Mysty and Alice."

"What? Why?" Marisa and I both asked simultaneously.

"Uh...well..." Momiji stammered as she started to blush. "I'd rather not say, to be honest."

"C'mon Miji!" I pleaded sarcastically. "One of the things that comes with being in a team is not keeping secrets from your teammates."

So I just invented a new term of endearment. I've already had my pep talk with Marisa, so I need to spend some more time becoming amiable with Momiji. A pet name is a nice way to start it off, right?

"I'm aware of that, but...uh..." Momiji paused, putting on her odd glare again. "Oh no..."

"What is it now, Miji?"

"Could you please not call me that? I'm not your pet." Momiji noted with a moue of disgust.

Marisa was stifling a laugh, but I don't blame her. I thought this was sort of funny too, to be honest. I guess I should just stick with a polite apology and leave it at that. Well, I can always keep the pet name for now...

"Sorry Momiji, I was just trying..."

"I talk now; you apologize later." Miji interrupted. "The point is that Remilia's baring her claws and Sakuya's readying her knives. It looks like things are about to get more than ugly."

Marisa winced, changing her affable visage into one of concern. Again, I have no idea who these people are. If a fight is about to happen, though, I'd rather stay away than be torn or knifed to an untimely death.

"Well then we have to go over there and stop it!" Marisa shouted at both of us. "We can't let them rip each other apart!"

"That doesn't seem too smart, Marisa." I responded calmly. "Getting into unnecessary fights is never a good idea. I should know; I learned my lesson."

"Too bad!" Marisa noted loudly. "I'm heading over there anyways. Something must be seriously wrong for 'Miss Knives' to turn on 'Madame Charisma', da ze."

"Besides, we need to kill some time anyways so that Mysty and Alice..." Momiji paused with a blush, immediately realizing her error. "Forget it. Let's just say that I'm with Marisa on this one."

I'm not one to argue with two people who are undoubtedly stronger than I am. That would be tantamount to suicide in most cases. Danmaku battles are fine since nobody ultimately dies, but I doubt that they would follow the 'spell card rules' if they wanted me dead. Thanks, but I'm not about to put myself in that situation. Still, I need to turn this to make it seem like I'm ultimately in charge.

"Alright, I can understand that." I responded with an air of what I thought was dignity. "Tumult between these two individuals will undoubtedly lead to trouble for the surrounding area, so let's just take this detour and clean it up. Besides, it'll only take a second."

Marisa and Miji simultaneously glowered at me from both sides. Needless to say, I was a bit intimidated. Did I overdo it, maybe?

"Well...good to see that everyone's on board then." I continued nervously as I took the lead towards the red mansion on the island. "So, can anyone tell me some more about the people who live here?"

"I'll let you know when we get to them." Marisa replied with a hint of annoyance. "It'd take way too long to describe them all right now, da ze."

"Could you at least explain Hong, maybe?" Miji asked. "She _is_ the gatekeeper, after all."

"Oh, right." Marisa noted as she turned to me. "Meiling, that green speck in the distance, is the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. To put it simply, she sleeps most of the time."

"That must mean that she's not a very good guard, huh?"

The look that Marisa gave me in response screamed something along the lines of 'Thank you, Captain Obvious!'. I was still a little intimidated from before, so I decided to keep my mouth shut about it.

"...as I was saying, she's still pretty easy to get around when she's awake." Marisa continued. "She's a martial arts master who can projects rainbow bullets and such, but they're easy enough to dodge. Honestly, she's nothing to worry about, da ze."

At this point, we had drawn close enough to the Scarlet Devil Mansion for me to notice that it wasn't of a native style. I couldn't quite tell where it was from, but that didn't really matter at this point. The main building was made of two primary stories, with a balcony on the second floor and set of large double-doors on the first floor. Straddling this area were two square-shaped towers of two stories a piece, each of which had 4 windows to a floor. Jutting out from the top of the mansion was a large clock tower, but I couldn't tell what time it was because I had never learned to read a clock-face. Next to the clock was a trio chimneys spewing out pure white smoke. I had never seen anything like it, and I was a little bit intimidated to be honest; it's a similar feeling to walking into a cave and not knowing whether a youkai is going to jump you.

"So why did Madame Charisma hire her if she's so bad at her job?"

"I have no clue and I don't really care." Marisa replied with a snicker, laughing at my misunderstanding of Remilia's name as I later found out. "I will say, however, that she could someday be decently powerful if she worked on not being Reimu-grade lazy. She makes a lot of excuses too, but that's another..."

"Marisa Kirisame!" cried the gatekeeper, interrupting Marisa. "So you've returned!"

The gatekeeper, who at this point I knew was Hong Meiling, was clad in a white blouse-type clothing that was covered by a light green vest stitched together with black ribbons. Her skirt was the same light green color as the vest and had small vertical stripes of white on it. A silver star adorned her moderately-sized green hat, yet again of the same color as her skirt and vest, which rested on top of her bright red hair. The look was, as I'd read in Aya's articles, that of a Chinese lady. Now what would a Chinese person be doing in Gensokyo?

"Eh?" Marisa noted in surprise as she turned back towards the mansion. "Oh look, Meiling's awake today. Who would have guessed?"

Even though I didn't see it, I could almost feel Miji's burning glare of disbelief. Didn't she point out that Meiling was 'surprisingly awake' when we left? Lucky for both of us, she didn't say anything.

"You three shall not pass!" Meiling shouted at us as she took a defensive stance. "No friend of Marisa is welcome here!"

"Oh really?" Marisa replied. "Honestly, you're just as easy to sneak past whether you're awake or asleep. Doesn't make much of a difference, da ze."

"Marisa?" I asked as I grabbed her shoulder.

"Yeah? What's up?" she replied with an amused smile. She must enjoy tossing Meiling around, so I might as well give her the opportunity.

"Shut up and take care of business." I commanded with a swift point towards the green-clad gatekeeper. "I'd like to get through with this as soon as possible if it's not any trouble."

"Actually..." Marisa mused. "Since Momiji and I know the insides of the place better than you, I say that we both might as well go on ahead and leave you to take care of Meiling."

My heart sank in my chest. Me? Take care of Meiling? Are you nuts? Of course, I was more frightened by the spark-toting witch than the gatekeeper at this point, which made for a persuasive argument.

"F-Fine..." I stammered, trying to regain control of my speech. "I'll take care of this. You two go and see what's going on inside."

"Great! We'll catch up with you later!" Marisa cried out as she and Miji flew up over the gate. "Good luck!"

Meiling, as if by instinct, flew off of the ground to intercept Marisa and Miji, but I had other plans. I can't just let her go after them! I need to get this fight underway!

"Hey! Your target is over here!" I shouted back at Meiling as I pulled out a spell card and flung it out into the air in front of me. "Firefly Sign - Comet on Earth!"

The card burst into a line of small green bullets which blocked Meiling's path towards Marisa and Miji. Next, a staggered wave of large blue bullets started moving slowly towards the green gatekeeper, who was definitely caught by surprise.

"Dammit..." she cursed under her breath as she turned back towards me. "Fine! I guess I'll have to deal with you first!"

Meiling's eyes flared up a bit with some sort of violent streak. I knew that she was going to take me seriously, which I thought was because I was hanging out with Marisa, a person who frequently got the better of her. In this case, she might already be mentally defeated. Chalk one up for my ego.

"Now that I have your attention, we're going to do this the right way." I said. "3 spells a piece, the one with the most knockdowns after all spells have been used is the winner. If I beat you, then you let Marisa, Miji, and I go through without any objections. If you beat me, however, I'll leave and not say another word. By the way, this spell counts as one of mine. Sound fair?"

"Those conditions are fine by me." Meiling responded pridefully. "Let's go then!"

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><p>Being a martial arts specialist, Meiling predictably charged in at me. That's exactly what I wanted, however, as this spell has nasty habit of...deterring approaching youkai threats. The green lines of bullets, which up to this point had been swaying slightly, promptly changed to a dark blue color and started whipping around randomly before disintegrating. Lucky for me, one of the bands happened to take Meiling by surprise and whack her in the gut. Needless to say, it send her spiraling back to the ground with a grunt of pain. Score one for the bug from back home!<p>

Still, I need to make myself seem as frightening, dangerous, and powerful as possible. If I can maintain an attitude like that, then maybe she'll just give up! She is lazy, after all.

"Predictable." I pointed out, not trying at all to hide my tone of haughtiness. "Don't you think that I already know what you're going to do? Face it, you have no idea what you're up against."

"Whether or not I know what I'm fighting doesn't mean that I can't win!" she cried back at me as she rose out of the dirt in front of the gate, appearing uninjured for the most part. "That's the only hit you'll get, believe me."

"I only need one to win." I replied with a hint of pride. "Now you have to get two hits, so let's see what you've got."

"Rainbow Sign - Wind Chime of Colorful Rainbow!" she bellowed as spell card dissolved in front of her.

Abruptly, a stream of rainbow-colored bullets fanned out around her, creating numerous lines of bullets arcing towards me. They swayed in a predictable pattern, and there seemed to be massive spaces between the lines. Why, then, would she use this against me?

"This is kind of weak, don't you think?" I noted as I weaved through the first round of bullets. "It's not like..."

But wait a second...she might be funneling me into one of these columns. If that's the case...then she's going to use that opportunity to get in close and corner me. I'll be at mercy to her martial arts! Mark my words, I'm not about to let that happen.

Which spell should I use though? What will hit up close no matter what? No wait, I need to be focused. She could a...

"Gotcha!" Meiling shouted as she appeared in front of me. "Now you're mine!"

I had been funneled into a corridor of bullets and there was no escape. Time to pull out a spell and hope to the gods that it works...

"Lamp Sign - 'Firefly Phenominon'!" I shouted as the spell dissolved in midair.

Immediately, a flurry of green danmaku launched out from where the card was, striking my assailant at point blank. From there, a stream of aimed blue bullets careened into her as well, making bright blue bursts when they made contact. She looked a bit disoriented, which I could take advantage of. With a swift kick to the gut from yours truly, Meiling spun backwards and almost hit the ground. Unfortunately for me, she never actually made contact with the ground. Hey, at least I didn't get hit by her spell!

At this point, I should probably note that I'm actually a good strategist (at least I think so...). Getting beaten up all the time lets you see a lot of tactics and strategies that people use in order to corner you. I'd seen this one before, though I don't exactly remember where. Either way, it's good to know that I saw it coming. Needless to say, the score was 0-1. She still had a chance, but it was a small one.

"Again, you have no idea what you're dealing with." I said as I assumed a fighting stance. "How about you just give up already?"

Meiling quickly flew back up to join me, although she didn't respond to my question. I can only guess that I was getting to her by now. Speaking of which, a really strong attack might just make her give up. If I was going to come up with some sort of signature move, I might as well do it now. Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky!

"I think that I'll go ahead and use my final spell now." I noted as I pulled out a spell card. "Swarm Sign - Lightning Lure!"

A swarm of bugs appeared from god-knows-where and formed a figure that looked, for as much as Meiling could probably tell, exactly like me. I'm getting better at this, aren't I? Since I have the ability to communicate with bugs, having the bug clone is like having a second body. It's very convenient, but it unfortunately takes a lot of focus.

"Two of you?" Meiling asked herself out loud. "Well then, I'm going to have to knock both of you down!"

Meiling, being as predictable as ever, charged towards me with a rainbow-colored passion in her eyes. To match her, the clone that I had created went to intercept her from my path. The usual focus of this spell is to draw in or block other shots so that I can get in close, but I can use it as a shield this time. Lucky me!

Meiling gave a swift punch to the clone's gut, but didn't cause it any physical damage; her hand simply passed through.

"What the..." she cried as she pulled her arm back and backed off. "What is this abomination?"

The clone gave Meiling a sadistic smile, one that honestly would have scared me if I wasn't the one who was telling it to do so. Abruptly, a bright burst of light and bright green lasers emerged from the clone, all aimed straight at the gatekeeper. She wobbled a bit in midair, obviously disoriented from the bright flash, and was quickly stricken by the danmaku shortly afterwords. It's a concentrated burst of power that's highly maneuverable, and I guess that's why I like it.

Meiling, who seemed at this point completely off-balance, simply fell from the sky and collided with the ground. It looked similar to when someone falls asleep while they're flying; they just stop in midair and fall straight down. I didn't expect that reaction, but I'll take it.

"U...guh..." Meiling moaned as she got her bearings. "...whaaa...what the hell just h-happened?"

"Bright lights and lasers can do that to people." I replied. "Don't worry, you should be fine in a minute or two...I hope."

"That w-wasn't a very respectable attack..." she added as she rose from the ground.

"That doesn't matter. All that matters is that I have two hits and you don't have any." I reasoned with a smug undertone. "There's no way that you can win now, so just give up."

"N-Not a chance! I will never give up on Lady Remilia!" Meiling cried in response as she flew back into the sky; she appeared to have mostly recovered already, which was much faster than I had expected. "Illusion Sign - Flower Imaginary Dream Vine!"

A burst of bright blue bullets exploded and froze in the air for a second before rolling down to greet me. The movements were fairly straight forward, which continues to prove to me that she isn't the best at danmaku. Not only that, but I've figured out her strategy: she wants me to corner me and then knock me down with some sort of physical attack. As long as I don't get trapped, I think that I'll be alright.

"Honestly, is this all that you can do?" I remarked. "I've had more of a challenge fighting drowsiness in the morning. Oh well, I guess..."

Wait...where'd she go? Not ag..._ACK!_

A swift stike to my back sent me face-first straight into the ground, creating a larger-than-necessary hole in the same spot where I had hit the ground before. Wow, she must be really good with her kicks then, isn't she?

"You were saying?" Meiling said. "Boasting gets you nowhere, believe me."

I rolled over onto my back and looked into the sky to see none other than her last spell card vaporizing. Oh gods...

"Color Sign - 'Extreme Color Typhoon'!"

A shower of multi-colored petal-shaped bullets, and I mean hundreds of them, flooded the sky and started on their way towards the ground. There was no point in trying to evade, so I simply closed my eyes and braced for impact. In my mind, a comparison between this spell card and a natural occurrence would have to be trying to graze rain: it's downright impossible.

The bullets didn't really hurt that much as they collided with me. In fact, I could almost completely ignore the pain if I tried hard enough to think pleasant thoughts. Singing with Mysty, eating some grilled eel with her, the wonderful smell of flowers in the air...

Wait! This all seems familiar somehow...

* * *

><p>I stopped feeling the pricks after a while and opened my eyes. Meiling was standing right next to me, looking down on me like a hunter would look down upon its prey. I wasn't scared though.<p>

"Looks like we tied." Meiling noted. "However, I got more 'hits' on you. Therefore, I would say that I won this duel."

Looks like she's right. I don't think that I can...wait a second! I have an idea!

"Hold it. The duel was to be decided on the number of times you knocked your opponent to the ground." I noted emphatically as I rose from the ground. "If I recall correctly, your final spell didn't knock me to the ground."

Meiling gulped, realizing that I was right. I licked my index finger and drew a tally mark in the air. So much for not being cocky.

"You knocked me down once and I knocked you down twice." I noted. "Therefore, I won."

The gatekeeper simply walked back to her post and sat down against the scarlet wall. Her face looked, for obvious reasons, very upset. I can't blame her, but I can't say that I'd react the same way. Since I lose most of my battles, I don't really get down on myself after a loss. Then again, I'm usually unconscious for a while...

"No hard feelings, right?" I asked, trying to somewhat remedy the situation. "You were just doing your job, that's all. I was only acting so heartlessly because I thought that it would intimidate you. I'm sorry."

"Yeah sure." she replied glumly, still affected by the loss. "By the way, I never caught your name. I'm Hong Meiling, but you probably already knew that."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I apologized sincerely. "My name is Wriggle Nightbug. I'm sorry that we had to meet like this."

"That's alright. You can stop apologizing." she replied with a sigh. "Just go on in."

I couldn't help but feel sorry for Meiling. She's a gatekeeper and she just lost to one of the weakest youkai in Gensokyo (she doesn't need to know that though...hehehe). She has to be disappointed in herself and I'm empathizing with her, but I'll have to take care of this situation another time. I have an incident to resolve! Still, I can't help but think that my title as 'weakest youkai in Gensokyo' might not be that accurate anymore...

"Alright then, I guess I'll see you around." I noted with a sincere smile. "Have a nice night."

Looking back, I probably should have asked Meiling about Mysty and Alice, but I completely forgot. Satisfied with my victory and eager to give my ego a big boost, I flew up over the gate and into the garden of the Scarlet Devil Mansion...

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

28 May, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: Rush rush rush! This was a busy week for me now that I have my internship at the hospital, so I spent most of Friday night Saturday morning writing this. As such, there are probably going to be more flaws than usual. Also, battle scenes are not my forte, so I'm sorry about the low quality of spell card descriptions and such. My bad...<strong>

**Speaking of battle scenes, there is a time and a place for SWR-style fight scenes. This story will be based mostly off of this type of fighting, but this fight was more of a traditional danmaku battle. Most of the spells used for characters such as Wriggle will be based on those from the games. Meiling's spell cards are the ones from EoSD because her spells from Hisoutensoku aren't really - well - easy to write into a fight like this. I'll try my hardest to make this more seamless in the future, but I can't quite guarantee anything at the moment.**

**Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you all next round, alright? Cheers!**


	11. Our Amateur Tour

**Author's Notes:****This is a short chapter (by my standards, anyways). I apologize in advance.**

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><p><em>The gatekeeper simply walked back to her post and sat down against the scarlet wall. Her face looked, for obvious reasons, very upset. I can't blame her, but I can't say that I'd react the same way. Since I lose most of my battles, I don't really get down on myself after a loss. Then again, I'm usually unconscious for a while...<em>

_"No hard feelings, right?" I asked, trying to somewhat remedy the situation. "You were just doing your job, that's all. I was only acting so heartlessly because I thought that it would intimidate you. I'm sorry."_

_"Yeah sure." she replied glumly, still affected by the loss. "By the way, I never caught your name. I'm Hong Meiling, but you probably already knew that."_

_"Oh, I'm sorry." I apologized sincerely. "My name is Wriggle Nightbug. I'm sorry that we had to meet like this."_

_"That's alright. You can stop apologizing." she replied with a sigh. "Just go on in."_

_I couldn't help but feel sorry for Meiling. She's a gatekeeper and she just lost to one of the weakest youkai in Gensokyo (she doesn't need to know that though...hehehe). She has to be disappointed in herself and I'm empathizing with her, but I'll have to take care of this situation another time. I have an incident to resolve! Still, I can't help but think that my title as 'weakest youkai in Gensokyo' might not be that accurate anymore..._

_"Alright then, I guess I'll see you around." I noted with a sincere smile. "Have a nice night."_

_Looking back, I probably should have asked Meiling about Mysty and Alice, but I completely forgot. Satisfied with my victory and eager to give my ego a big boost, I flew up over the gate and into the garden of the Scarlet Devil Mansion..._

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><p>The moon had already risen in the horizon, casting an eerie glow over the Scarlet Devil Mansion. A number of loud clangs - I counted seven - rung throughout the night. I guess that's a way for the residents to know what time it is? Oh well, that didn't amaze me as much as the garden did.<p>

I have to admit, the garden inside the gates of the Scarlet Devil Mansion is extremely beautiful. Although small, it held some of the finest flowers that I'd ever seen. The garden, located in front of the mansion, was cut into two distinct parts by a dirt walkway. Off to the left, there were numerous red and white roses beckoning me to smell them. Off to the right, there were various camellias which had similar colors to the roses. There were also some cherry blossoms sprinkled around the garden at symmetrical intervals, which I happened to find were a nice finishing touch to the look of the garden as a whole. If I could, I would have just spent the rest of the night there looking at the myriad of flowers and inhaling the wonderful aromas. I'll definitely have to come back here sometime when I'm not so involved in other affairs.

Following the dirt path, I encountered the formidable entrance of the mansion. Situated underneath a balcony, the double door was impressive: it had a deep-red color, which I found odd, and both rectangular doors were marked with designs that I couldn't even begin to describe in detail. Let's just say that they were very ornate and leave it at that.

One of the doors, however, was ajar. That made sense; Marisa and Miji went in before me and they would have no reason to close the door. I stepped inside and gazed in a mix of awe and terror at the insides of the scarlet mansion.

The circular lobby of the mansion was without a doubt one of the more intimidating places that I've ever been. There were five main brown doors in front of me, each outlined by an ornate frame of stone designs. They were all open, looked exactly the same, and revealed very long corridors, one of which I would probably end up going through in the near future. The entire hue of the lobby was a blood-red color, which made me feel sick to my stomach. Even worse, the ceiling was a disturbing collage of dark reds, scarlet reds, fiery oranges, and bright yellows. If I wasn't on a mission, I would have simply turn around and walked back into the peaceful garden. Unfortunately for me, however, I have to suck it up and get going.

"Uh...hello?" I asked, hoping for someone hear me. "Marisa? Miji? You guys here?"

There wasn't any response.

"Anybody at all? Is anyone here? Answer me!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Again, there wasn't any response. Looks like I'm not going to get any help, so I should probably just pick a path. How about...the middle path? Yeah, that'll do.

With firm resolution and a bit of fright in my heart, I started down the corridor in the middle...

* * *

><p>At first glance, it extended beyond my field of vision and was completely devoid of life. Off to my sides, I could see numerous random doors, all of which were in a similar design to the lobby doors. Since I don't want to be a burglar or a creepy guest, I should probably stay out of those. Occasionally, there were corridors that branched off from the main one that I was on, though those were smaller and mostly lead to dead ends. Since I have to make the most of my time, I'm not going to spend time searching all of those doors. The main hallway should lead me where I need to go...<p>

I just kept walking down the hallway for around five minutes or so. At that point, I realized that there was no way this place could be so large on the inside. There's no way a mansion of the size that I saw when I was outside could have me walking down a corridor for five minutes straight. I guess I can wave that off on account of magic, but it still strikes me as odd. On that note, I'd love to have a small abode that's really large on the inside. Maybe that dream will come true if I borrow some of Madame Charisma's magic someday.

Speaking of Madame Charisma, I'm going to have to tell her to put some maps in the lobby or at least supply someone to give me a tour. I have absolutely no idea where I'm going! I wish I had Miji with me...but wait! If I simply think about how lost I am, then someone is bound to...

"Excuse me, are you a maid here too?" said a high-pitched voice from behind me. Chalk another one up for crack logic!

I whirled around to see, not surprisingly, a blue-haired fairy dressed in a black and white maid outfit. She was carrying a gray duster and, unlike most of the residents of Gensokyo, she was not wearing any type of hat. Her head was cocked slightly to the side as well, which I think is a sign of curiosity.

"...because there are some spills in the library that need cleaning up. So, get to it." she continued, apparently not noticing my lack of maid-themed attire. Gods forbid that I was ever that stupid.

"Hold on. Let's think for a second." I replied with a smug grin. "Am I wearing a maid uniform?"

"No." replied the fairy. "Do you think that I'm that dumb?"

Yes. Yes I do.

"...but the Head Maid said that she hired someone new and that they needed a uniform and to get to work. The current problem is the spill in the library." she continued, her words flowing out of her mouth like an annoying river current. "So, are you that person?"

Even if the obvious answer is 'NO', I might be able to take advantage of this situation. If I say yes, then this fairy might take me to the library where I might be able to find somebody. Didn't Aya's articles mention something about a book-lover in this mansion? Ah well, that's a risk worth taking.

"Actually, yes." I replied, hoping that the maid wouldn't see through my ruse. "Today's my first day, so I don't really know my way around here."

"Oh really? Well then, welcome aboard! So, about that spill..."

"Like I said, I don't know how to get to the library." I interrupted, trying my best to stay cool, calm, and collected. "Could you lead me there?"

"Sure!" she replied with a tone of excitement; apparently, finding me made her day that much more special.

With that, the fairy took off down the hall in the direction that I had been going before. I followed suit and managed to catch up with her. Keeping pace with her after that point wasn't too difficult, but she definitely had a lot of energy. Fairies generally do, and it can be annoying sometimes.

"So, what's your name?" the fairy asked with a lingering tone of enthusiasm.

"I'm Wriggle." I replied.

"Wriggle? That's what bugs do, right?"

I sighed. You don't know how many times I've had people make that comparison before: I'm a bug youkai and my name is Wriggle. It's one of my pet peeves, but I can't blame her for not knowing.

"Yes, bugs can wriggle if they want to." I noted, desperately trying to hide my annoyance. "But that's enough about me. How about you? What's your name?"

"My name is Etsuko!" she exclaimed as she flailed her duster around in the air. "I'm a fairy and I'm a maid here!"

I believe that it's my turn to say 'Thank you, Captain Obvious!'. Fairies sure do get excited over the most random details, not to mention that they're not that intelligent. Heck, I'm not smart and I can tell how stupid she is! Now why would Madame Charisma hire these idiots to do the housekeeping? It doesn't make much sense.

"Right." I noted while attending to a sudden itch on the back of my neck. "I've never really cleaned much of anything, so I can't say that I'll be that big of a help."

"That's fine!" Etsuko noted while making appropriate hand motions. "Mopping is easy!"

Now that I think about it, this is valuable opportunity. Since I have nothing else to say and the fairy's going to talk to me about random stuff anyways, I might as well get some questions answered while I'm at it.

"So, how long have you been working here?" I asked as we made a right turn. Getting back out of here is going to be hell, I just know it.

"I don't know." she replied. "Maybe a year or two?"

Looks like I found the perfect person to answer my questions! Lucky me!

"Do you like working here? What's the environment like?"

"Oh, it's usually pretty nice!" she replied with a pleasant smile. "Sometimes the head maid scolds me, but everything is perfectly fine as long as you don't screw up!"

I wanted to say something along the lines of: 'I have no intention of screwing up, since I don't actually work here.'. I should just keep those thoughts to myself though since I don't want to blow my cover.

"Speaking of the head maid, who is she and what's she up to right now?"

Etsuko made a kind of a weird face: probably a result of strenuous thinking. Is remembering what the chief maid does every night that difficult?

"She's probably serving the mistress her morning tea." the fairy replied after a pause. "The head maid is such a nice, graceful, and loyal lady."

Hold on! That raised some flags in my head. Why then, if the head maid is so loyal to Madame Charisma, would they both be fighting? It that's the case, then think I know who's responsible...

"...not only that, but she can toss knives like a pro! You don't want to catch her in a bad mood." the fairy continued.

Note to self: avoid knives at all cost. Also, the head maid is Ms. Knives.

"Have they ever fought in the past?" I asked as we made a left turn. I could see a huge set of double doors at the end of the hallway. The doors came together under a scarlet stone arch that ended in a point, and both of the doors were an earthy brown color. Off to the side, there was a mop and bucket already prepared for some maid's use. Using a little bit of common sense, I can guess that the library lies beyond those doors and that I'm the lucky maid who's going to be cleaning it up.

"Not that I know of." the fairy responded again after a pause. "Neither of them ever get very angry at each other and they both respect each other very much. All of us maids respect them both too!"

I can believe that. If they didn't have a shred of respect for their superiors, I assume that they might end up as dinner for Madame Charisma. What I can't believe, however, is that this fairy has no idea what's going on between those two right now. You'd think that at least one of the maids would have seen it and spread the news...

"So there are a lot of you maids here, aren't there?" I asked.

"Yup!" the fairy maid replied with her undying level of enthusiasm.

If that's true, then why wouldn't the news have spread by now? Oh god, this is starting to get confusing! I thought gossip thrived in places like these! Are they all really that ignorant? My guess at this point would be a resounding 'YES'.

"In fact, some of us get a lot of free time during the day!" Etsuko continued. "It's really nice working here, especially when everyone else is on break like they are now!"

On break? Wait, then that means...

"If there are so many maids on break, then shouldn't there be a ton of them just sitting around? If so, then why the hell am _I_ doing this?" I replied in a blatantly annoyed voice. "Don't you think that somebody else should have taken care of this by now?"

"Uh..." the fairy stuttered. "Nobody else wanted to handle it, so...you're the one who's going to clean it up. It'll be like initiation!"

I don't like where this is going. I have a feeling that I'm about to be hazed...

"Now hold on! That doesn't sound very fair!" I contended, my anger seeping through into my speech. "Get someone else to do it!"

"We're already here, so just do it." she said as she crossed her arms in defiance. "Besides, it should only take a second."

As much as I hate to admit it, I should do what she wants. I need to find someone who isn't a complete idiot. The library would be the best place to do so, since it's full of books and such. Maybe someone in there could help me out.

"Alright." I replied in a voice fitting for a defeated opponent. "I'll get right to it."

"Then I'll see you around!" she replied in what was now her characteristically cheerful manner. "Have fun!"

Etsuko quickly flew off down the hallway, leaving me alone at the door. Besides, it's probably just some spilled magic chemical or something that the idiot fairy maids don't want to deal with. For me, it won't be any problem at all! Firm in my resolutions, I cautiously opened the double doors with a forceful thrust.

Upon looking inside, my reaction can be described in three short words:

...

What the fuck.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

4 June, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: This chapter was too short, and I realize that. My bad!~<strong>

**Many thanks to Etherdrone for commenting on every single one of my chapters in one night! My head, for lack of a better term, exploded.****That's not to say that I don't appreciate my other reviewers! I love you guys all the same! I just, well, wasn't expecting that at all. Good job surprising me there, Ether.**

**With that out of the way, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to review and bring your friends with you for the next chapter! Cheers!**


	12. Our Deviant Librarians

**Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay, guys! I went on a short personal vacation. Traveling was fun, but it's tiring; needless to say, I didn't get any work done during this period. Oh well!~**

**This is another chapter that switches person (viewpoint, perspective, etc.). You'll know when it happens, so don't worry about that.**

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><p><em>"Uh..." the fairy stuttered. "Nobody else wanted to handle it, so...you're the one who's going to clean it up. It'll be like initiation!"<em>

_I don't like where this is going. I have a feeling that I'm about to be hazed..._

_"Now hold on! That doesn't sound very fair!" I contended, my anger seeping through into my speech. "Get someone else to do it!"_

_"We're already here, so just do it." she said as she crossed her arms in defiance. "Besides, it should only take a second."_

_As much as I hate to admit it, I should do what she wants. I need to find someone who isn't a complete idiot. The library would be the best place to do so, since it's full of books and such. Maybe someone in there could help me out._

_"Alright." I replied in a voice fitting for a defeated opponent. "I'll get right to it."_

_"Then I'll see you around!" she replied in what was now her characteristically cheerful manner. "Have fun!"_

_Etsuko quickly flew off down the hallway, leaving me alone at the door. Besides, it's probably just some spilled magic chemical or something that the idiot fairy maids don't want to deal with. For me, it won't be any problem at all! Firm in my resolutions, I cautiously opened the double doors with a forceful thrust._

_Upon looking inside, my reaction can be described in three short words:_

_..._

_What the fuck_

* * *

><p>Even though this wasn't the focus of my surprise, I'm should at least describe what the library looked like. It was, without a doubt, a very impressive place. The walls were litterally made of books! Well...maybe I exagerated a little bit, but the bookshelves there extended all the way to the ceiling. As if that weren't enough, there were more large bookshelves placed in the middle of the library, which created corridors. Even more books lay on the floor in relatively large stacks as if there wasn't any more room on the shelves for them; the stacks were gathered mostly around a small white table in the center that had two yellow chairs next to it. Some sort of bench suspended by two cables could be used to navigate the shelves, while numerous orbs of light that were hanging from the ceiling provided enough light to see what was going on. Honestly, I would have prefered that the lights were off.<p>

I saw numerous unfamiliar faces, most of which I counted off as being fairies. They were all sprawled out on the ground; most of them seemed to be asleep in a puddle of who-knows-what. I assume this is what Etsuko wanted me to clean. Unfortunately for her, I don't have any time nor incentive to do so.

Three figures however, stood out to me in detail. Normally, this is the part where I describe what they were doing, what they were wearing, etc. The problem is, however, that they weren't wearing anything.

There was a lavender-haired woman sitting on the table while drowning herself in sake. I'd rather not comment on her physical appearance, but let's just say that she left me feeling very inadequate. She appeared to be watching the commotion in the center of the room: a scarlet-haired girl with black wings protruding from both her head and her back was eagerly and passionately kissing a blonde-haired woman.

"What is this?" I exclaimed, holding nothing back. "What the hell are you guys doing?"

The all instantaneosly turned to me, the devil and the looking at me as if I were some sort of intruder; if they would have called me out on it, I might have conceded the point.

"Hey..." hiccuped the lavendar-haired woman. "...looks like you've got another friend, Koakuma. Have fun!~"

"Oh?" Koakuma responded as she broke off from the kiss. "That's great! I think we have room for one more, don't you think so?"

"No!" I shouted back. "I'm not going to paricipate in whatever the hell you guys are doing! All I want are some directions, please."

"Hold on." the devil-girl replied as she got up and began to walk towards me. "I'll give you a tour if you'll only stay for five minutes. How does that sound?"

How does that sound? Uh...it sounds like a horrible deal if you ask me. There's no way that I'm spending...five minutes...uh...

"Just relax." she assured me softly as she placed her hand on my shoulder. "You're going to love this. Beleive me."

This is such an odd feeling. I'm being sucked in by something, but I can't determine what. Maybe I should just go with it?

"Nice one, Koa!~" the lavender-haired woman slurred. "Just save some for me later, alright?~"

"Don't forget about me." spoke the blonde woman in a monotone voice. "Koa is really great, da ze."

Wait...da ze? Oh crap, I know who that is!

"Marisa!" I snapped, hopping backwards out of the devil-girl's hold. "What the hell happened to you? Snap out of it!"

"Don't listen to her." Koakuma said blithely. "She's just trying to ruin our play time. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"

"No." Marisa replied in the same voice as before. "We can't have anyone interupt our fun time."

Screw it, I'm not going to get anywhere quickly if I just beat around the bush; I can't gain anything by wasting more time. I'm taking Marisa with me whether she likes it or not.

"Well that's just too bad." I noted as I approached the currently supine witch. "You're coming with me now. We have to finish this."

"Hey Patchy..." Marisa responded. "Care to take care of this for me?"

No response. The violet-haired woman, who I assume is the one named Patchy, had passed out. I can't say that I didn't see that coming.

"Patchy...?" Marisa added with a more colorful tone. "Where'd you..."

I grabbed Marisa by the arm and tugged as hard as I could. Unfortunately for me, I underestimated how heavy she was. Instead of pulling the witch clean off of the ground like I had anticipated, I almost dislocated my left shoulder. Remind me not to do that ever again, alright?

"Ow..." I noted, rubbing my shoulder. "Just get up, dammit."

"I won't let you take Kiri away from me." Koakuma replied, apparently right behind me. "So, tough luck for you."

She pushed me to the ground right next to Marisa, whom Koakuma affectionately called 'Kiri'; this probably stems from her last name, Kirisame, but I can't really be too sure. Also, I could have sworn that I fell into some sort of puddle when I hit the carpeted floor, but I didn't really care at this point. I just wanted to get away from the creepy devil-girl and get Marisa out of here.

"Now just sit still and enjoy the ride." she added with a faint smile and a blatantly seductive tone as she leaned over me. "It'll only take a second..."

"Like hell!" I pointed out in an agitated voice. "Take this!"

With a swift punt to the crotch, the devil-girl went spiraling down to the ground with howls of pain. Lucky shot, maybe?

"C'mon Marisa, we're getting out of here." I said as I got up out off of the ground. Wrapping my left arm around the knees and my right arm around her back, I lifted her up off of the ground with some difficulty. She's a lot heavier than Mysty, I'll give her that.

"But what about Patchy?"

"Forget about her." I noted with a tone of hostility. "We can worry about that once we get you away from this she-devil."

"...you bitch!" Koakuma cried in agony. "Get back here!"

I don't even feel like giving her an appropriate response. Instead, I think I'll show her how I really feel.

"If you mess with my friends ever again, I'll personally make sure that you are covered from head to toe in extremely painful puss-filled welts." I said. "I'll just leave you with this, as a reminder of who you're dealing with."

With that, I kicked her hard in the stomach. She rolled over onto her back with a groan, rubbing the newly-inured areas with her hands. I don't feel sorry in the slightest, so...I guess this marks a new chapter in my development. Yeah, I'm badass. Is that a problem?

* * *

><p>I carried Marisa out of the library and set her down on the ground. Just to be safe, I closed the door behind me and put the mop-handle between the two door handles. I don't want the sex-crazed devil to come back and get us; that and I need some time to erase these images from my brain. Whatever the heck that was is one scene I never want to see again.<p>

"Marisa?" I asked in my traditionally concerned tone, trying to keep myself from looking at her naked body. "Are you alright?"

"Don't interrupt our fun time!" she commanded as she writhed on the ground.

"Snap out of it, Marisa!" I shouted while shaking her body back and forth. "What did they do to you?"

"They gave me the best time of my life! Let me go back!"

Seriously, what did they do to her? You know what - screw it! I'm not going to keep playing this game; I'm not in the mood. With a quick motion of my hand, my palm connected with her face in an explosion of sound. Her head flew to the side violently as I quickly retracted my hand.

"Uh..." she stuttered, rubbing the red mark that I had left on her face. "Ow. Why'd you have to slap me? That hurt, you know."

I guess there is some credit to slapping some sense into somebody. Now that I've figured that out, I'll have to do that more often.

"Are you back to reality now?" I asked in a blatantly annoyed tone. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, I feel a little bit better." she noted as she got up off of the ground. "She was pretty awesome, though."

"I'd rather not hear about it, but thanks anyways." I noted with a wave of my hand, indicating that we should start moving. "Speaking of which, shouldn't we be going somewhere?"

"Hm? Oh yeah! Just follow me, da ze." Marisa replied with her characteristic tone of pride.

With that, we both set off down the same hallway that Etsuko and I had come down just a little while earlier. I should take this time to say that I don't have any intention of coming back to the library any time soon. First off, I can't read. Second, I don't want to run into either of those crazy people ever again. Now that I've said that, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to see them again. My bad.

"But what about..."

"I told you already!" I interrupted with a burst of latent anger angrily. "Forget about her!"

"...my clothes."

"What?" I replied in surprise. "Your clothes?"

"I left 'em back there when you dragged me out, da ze." Marisa noted. "But you probably don't want me going back in there any time soon, so I'll just grab 'em later."

"Good." I replied tersely. "I'm glad that we see eye-to-eye on this."

"Could I at least wear your cape, though?" asked Marisa. "It's actually kind of cold in here, da ze."

Despite the fact that it was pretty warm in the mansion, I unhooked and promptly gave her my cape. She slipped it over her chest, making sure to fasten the loop behind her neck. The black cloth covered her all the way down to her knees, which meant that I could now look at her without feeling ashamed. Her backside though was still open to the air, but I didn't really care and I doubt she did either. Just as long as she doesn't bend over to pick something up, I think that I'll be fine.

"Ah, that's better!" Marisa said with a sigh of relief. "Thanks, da ze."

"No problem." I stated simply with a nod. "That's what friends are for, right?"

Marisa shot me an odd look that reeked of annoyance: possibly trying to tell me to lay off of the friendship speeches. Message received, Miss Kirisame.

"So who were those two people in the library?" I asked abruptly, attempting to change the subject and salvage my faux pas.

"Well...Patchouli Knowledge, the lavender-haired one, is the librarian book-lover of the Scarlet Devil Mansion." Marisa began. "She almost never comes out of the library because she reads so much; she's really introverted, ya know? The succubus, or the 'devil-girl' as you keep calling her, is named Koakuma. She's Patchy's familiar, which means that she fetches books and other stuff for Patchy whenever they're asked for. She's faithful, helpful, and nice all at the same time, da ze."

Wait, that doesn't make any sense! Why would the normally quiet librarian have suddenly decided to get wasted? Why wouldn't the succubus have shown a streak like this before? Mysty must have gotten to them, then. I wonder what she was trying to accomplish with those changes...

"How'd you even get involved in that mess?" I asked, leaving my train out of the conversation. "While we're at it, where's Miji?"

"Miji...?" Marisa asked. "Oh, you mean Momiji!"

I had to hold myself back from making a sarcastic remark. Of course I meant Momiji! Who else would I have been talking about?

"Well, it all started with a small dispute." Marisa continued as we made a left turn. "Nothing major, da ze."...

* * *

><p>"I told you that we're going the wrong way! We need to turn around and head back!" Momiji told me angrily as she stared off into space.<p>

She and I had been walking down through the mansion for around five minutes, so she was getting impatient. Not only that, but I think that she had finally figured out that I wasn't heading to Remilia's chamber. Whoops.

"We're making a left turn here." I said, continuing to walk forward.

Leave it to Momiji to take me seriously. Just like I told her to, she made a left turn and ran straight into a wall. With a small yelp, she backed away and grasped at her nose with both hands. I couldn't hold it back; I just couldn't keep myself from laughing.

"Dammit, Marisa!" she exclaimed, obviously angry at me. "Don't do that!"

"Don't worry about it, da ze!" I responded, barely containing my fits of laughter. "I just needed you to snap back to reality for a sec. We're here."

We had stopped in front of the library's double doors. Sure I lied, but I had some business to take care of.

"Marisa, this is not where we need to be." she responded with a sigh of agitation. "If you don't care about stopping this feud, then I'm going to have to abandon you and take care of this by myself."

"That's fine by me." I replied as I turned around and faced her. "I just wanted to drop in and see Patchouli first. I'll catch up with you later, alright?"

After giving me a glare mixed with disappointment and anger, Momiji spun around away without a word and ran off. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that she was pissed, but she'll take care of it. Besides, what possible harm could Remilia and Sakuya cause to each other? There's nothing to worry about!

As I turned around, I noticed that the door was already slightly open. She usually sets up some trap or something to try and stop me from coming in, but I can't help but ask why she left the door open. Did she finally give up trying to stop me?

"I'm home!" I blindly shouted as I flung the doors open with a mighty thrust. "How's my favorite librarian doing to..."

My thoughts were quickly interrupted by bursts of music coming from nowhere. I paused for a second as I looked around; there were numerous fairy maids gathered in a circle around both Patchy and Koakuma. Patchy had a large bottle of sake in her hand, which she was more than eager to chug down. Koakuma, on the other hand, was simply trying to talk over the music. The chattering fairies didn't make this much better for either of us.

"...day. Patchy, what's this about?"

"Koakuma and I are having a party!" she noted with a tone that I almost never hear from her: excitement. "Why don't you come and join us?"

This is beyond suspicious. Patchouli would NEVER throw a party! Not only that, but she protests all forms of non-book-themed merriment in the library. What the hell is going on?

"You feeling alright, Patchy?" I remarked as I pushed my way through the circle of fairies. "The Patchy I know would never..."

"Come on, Marisa." she slurred after she gulped down some more sake. "You gotta live a little to live a lot!~"

"Speaking of which, it's good to see you." Koakuma added with a smile. "You're looking very nice tonight."

"I'm wearing what I always wear." I noted. "You guys didn't happen to see a night sparrow, did you?"

"I haven't." Koakuma replied as she began walking towards me. "But I have to say that you're looking especially...delicious today."

At this point, I realized that coming here was a bad idea. They're messed up and I know that now. I'll just have to grab Mystia and come back here later.

"This is beyond weird, da ze." I retorted, now trying to break my way out of the ring of fairies. "Come talk to me when you all aren't hopped up on Eirin's crazy pills."

"No." Koakuma spoke softly as she put her hand on my shoulder. "You're going to stay right here with me, ok?"

* * *

><p>"Then that's when things started to get unfit for young children's eyes, da ze." Marisa concluded. "I don't remember how long I was in there. I gotta admit though, that was one hell of a ride."<p>

That figures. Marisa would fall into that trap, wouldn't she? Oh who am I kidding? I almost fell into that too. At least I know now that it wasn't just me and that she was using her succubus wiles to seduce Marisa too. Luckily, I arrived just in time to save her! In fact...

"You owe me one."

"Huh?" Marisa asked as she threw me a curious glance. "No I don't. If anything, we're even."

"And why would you say that?" I asked in return. "Didn't I just save you from the succubus? I would think that you owe me for that."

"Well you dragged me away before I could grab my clothes or my hakkero, so I say we're even." Marisa noted with a hostile undertone.

She has a point: I not only stole her away without her clothes, but I left her spark box there too. I should consider myself lucky not to be in a stranglehold right now.

"Well what can you do without your spark box?" I asked as I moved away from her; I suddenly don't feel comfortable being in her path. "You'll still be able to help, right?"

"Of course, da ze." she replied, dropping her hostility. "It just beefs up some of my spells. I'm still plenty good without it, but I like to have it just in case."

"By 'just in case', do you mean 'I flaunt it before every fight'?"

"You know me too well, da ze!" she responded. "People better be afraid of the ordinary magician: Kirisame..."

"Marisa!" shouted a voice from down the hall.

Lo and behold, Momiji comes flying down the hallway at tengu-grade speeds. I just hope that she can stop in time and not run us over. That wouldn't fare well for our team at all.

"Well that was anticlimactic." Marisa said, rolling her eyes. "Unlike Koa!~"

Oh god, not again! I have a feeling that I'm going to be hearing a lot about this in the future. If that's the case, I'm going to have to learn to tolerate these nasty images in my head. Go away and leave me alone! Stop defiling my brain!

"Mij...Momiji!" I shouted, snapping out of the feud being waged inside my head. "What's wrong?"

The wolf tengu came to a stiff halt in front of us, somehow managing to keep her composure despite the fact that her face reeked of worry and her clothes were slightly askew. That's probably due to the intense flying speed, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.

"You remember that fight that we were supposed to take care of?" she asked as she straightened out her skirt.

"Yeah?" Marisa and I both replied simultaneously.

"Well, they're going for each other's throats." she said with a grim tone. "It's a battle to the death."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

15 June, 2011

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: So...this is a "love it or hate it" (no pun intended) chapter in my opinion. I have a feeling that it's going to be more of the latter, but you all will just have to let me know on that front, alright?<strong>

**So thanks again for reading! Don't forget to type up a nice review (or constructive one, for that matter) that I can reflect on. Cheers!**


	13. Our Foolproof Plan

**Author's Notes: All of these delays are making me sick. What'd you expect, huh? Anyways, here's the next installment. It's somewhat short, but I'll get into the reason for that later.**

**This is yet another planning chapter. I just thought that I should warn you.**

* * *

><p><em>Lo and behold, Momiji comes flying down the hallway at tengu-grade speeds. I just hope that she can stop in time and not run us over. That wouldn't fare well for our team at all.<em>

_"Well that was anticlimactic." Marisa said, rolling her eyes. "Unlike Koa!~"_

_Oh god, not again! I have a feeling that I'm going to be hearing a lot about this in the future. If that's the case, I'm going to have to learn to tolerate these nasty images in my head. Go away and leave me alone! Stop defiling my brain!_

_"Mij...Momiji!" I shouted, snapping out of the feud being waged inside my head. "What's wrong?"_

_The wolf tengu came to a stiff halt in front of us, somehow managing to keep her composure despite the fact that her face reeked of worry and her clothes were slightly askew. That's probably due to the intense flying speed, so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about._

_"You remember that fight that we were supposed to take care of?" she asked as she straightened out her skirt._

_"Yeah?" Marisa and I both replied simultaneously._

_"Well, they're going for each other's throats." she said with a grim tone. "It's a battle to the death."_

* * *

><p>I can't say that I didn't see this coming. I've had enough surprises for one day, and I'm getting sick and tired of this. So what if they want to kill each other? Let them have at it!<p>

...Wait a second, that sounded absolutely heartless. I really need to get these negative thoughts out of my head if I want to remain a sane and moral being; not to mention that I would be making more enemies than allies if I let comments like those slip out. Besides, I should be fine as long as I stick to the plan and not let my anger take over.

"But I thought that you couldn't kill vampires very easily." I noted, trying to put two and two together. "How would a human even stand a chance against a vampire?

Marisa, who at this point had remained totally silent, finally turned to me with a surprisingly unfazed look on her face. I can't say that I blame her since she was probably expecting this. Nice poker face.

"You really don't know anything, do you?" she noted. "You see, when a man and a woman love each other very much..."

"We don't have time for this, Marisa! I'll explain when we get there!" Miji interrupted, grabbing both of our arms. "We have to haul ass!"

Without even giving me a moment to gather my composure, Miji kicked off of the ground with us in tow. Before I knew it, we were accelerating at nausea-inducing speeds down the hallway. Everything was whizzing by so quickly that it seemed like I was flying through a bloody mist: something that I had only seen happen once before. Even if it was a long time ago, I still get nightmares about it. I thought it was the apocalypse: the end of Gensokyo and all of the people that I had ever known and loved. Needless to say, having to relive those memories right now is terrifying.

Marisa's face was beaming with glee; I blame her thrill-seeking nature for this. My cape, which was thrashing around wildly, barely hung onto her body. I have to admit though, it was a little bit unnerving to see her lack of worry compared to earlier. It was obvious enough that she cared about Patchy, but she seemed much more distraught back at Youkai Mountain when we first received the news. Did she even care about these two combatants? I guess I'll have to ask her about that some other time.

I couldn't see Miji's face, but I expected for her to have the same expression that she was wearing earlier: one of anxiety and dread. When it gets right down to it, I can't help but wonder if Miji's soldier attitude is just an act. First off, she let me off the hook way too easily back in the forest. Second, her exchange with Aya made her seem surprisingly helpless. Thirdly, we have this situation as we're rushing to resolve some incident concerning people she probably doesn't even care that much about: it seems like she'd practically sweat bullets if she could. It'd be better for me not to say things like that out loud though for fear of decapitation by our favorite white-wolf tengu. But that only makes me keep thinking...would she actually go through with it?

I really need to just stop thinking of these things; they get me nowhere. In that case, I should probably focus on not vomiting...

* * *

><p>Miji, as I mentioned before, is way too fast for my liking. I don't think that I could tolerate doing this again if I had to, and I don't plan on doing this again any time soon. Not even for a million...well, maybe for a million yen. It wasn't <em>that<em> bad...

We came to a screeching halt, which almost made me blow chunks all over the wall. The sudden jerk made me feel dizzy for a second before I regained my senses and looked around me. Marisa was still wearing her enormous grin; she apparently enjoyed the ride. She did have to adjust the cape, however, which I promptly had to turn away from. Miji, on the other hand, was back to wearing her 'merciless soldier' expression that I had become slightly afraid of.

The hall looked like pretty much every other hall that we had been through, but the defining piece was the much-larger-than-necessary set of double doors. They, unlike most of the other doors in the mansion, were not embellished very much: they simply had a border cut out along the edges. Straddling the door were two lanterns, both of which were emitting a pale orange glow. All in all, it was simple yet elegant.

The noises coming from the inside, even though they were muffled, were still somewhat loud. The numerous thumps and explosion-like bangs were usually followed by some sort of high-pitched scream, which was unnerving. I can't blame myself for having sudden doubts about our mission, I guess.

"That was awesome!" Marisa shouted. "Let's go again!

"Keep your voice down, idiot!" I reprimanded, trying to once again regain the leadership position of the team. "Do you want them to hear us?"

"No need to be so mean, da ze." Marisa noted, keeping the same excited look on her face. "Anyways, how's it looking in there, Miji?"

Momiji's face turned sour: probably because my new nickname for her was catching on. I'm a trendsetter!

"Their attacks are definitely not being limited by spellcard regulations." she pointed out bluntly, staring at us with that usual blank gaze. "Now would definitely not be a good time to barge in."

"Why?" we both asked simultaneously.

"If you want to earn the title of 'scarlet pincushion', be my guest." she noted. "We can at least use this time to get some things straight..."

"Then why the heck did we need to 'haul ass'?" I added, reliving my memories from less than a minute ago.

"I thought that they would have stopped by now. The human looked like she was about to give up, but..." Miji paused. "She surprised me, and so the fight rages on."

That makes sense, I guess. I'm still a little bit annoyed, but I guess I can slide this under the rug for now.

"That's fine. You did what you thought was necessary." I spoke, trying to make amends with the tengu. "Like you said, though, we should use this time to figure out what we're going to do. Would you like to explain, Marisa?"

"Is it my turn? Alright." Marisa started, turning towards me. "Remilia Scarlet is a vampire. Sakuya Izayoi is the chief maid."

So Remilia is Madame Charisma and Sakuya is Miss Knives. That makes a little bit more sense now, I guess.

"Normally, Sakuya is loyal to a fault: obeying the mistress's every command like a dog. Remi must have really pushed her off the deep end for something like this to happen, da ze."

This sounds familiar somehow...

"So, like I asked before, aren't vampires extremely powerful compared to humans?" I asked. "Why isn't this battle one-sided?"

"There are three things that you need to know: vampires have a lot of exploitable weaknesses, Sakuya can stop time with her pocketwatch, and the fact that these two have been living with each other forever only makes it a more balanced fight." Marisa replied. "They know each other's weaknesses and stuff, so it wouldn't be too difficult for Sakuya to put up a decent fight, da ze."

She can stop time? That's really cool and all, but I'm really starting to have doubts now. Can we even pull this off? I sure hope so.

"So who's the easier target?" I asked, trying now to form a battle plan. "The easiest way to end the duel, I guess, would be to knock out the weakest member and try to resolve the issue diplomatically with the remaining fighter. That would work, wouldn't it?"

Marisa gave me kind of a skeptical look while Momiji continued to stare off into space. It wasn't the reaction I was looking for, but I'll take it as long as I'm being listened to.

"That's not a bad idea, Wriggle." Miji noted with a hint of surprise. "From what I'm seeing right now, it would be best for us to go with that."

Well that was a nice boost to my reputation! I'm becoming a more valuable member as we speak!

"You sure?" Marisa mused. "I thought 'battle to the death' meant 'the fight doesn't end until someone dies', da ze."

"It's the best option we have right now." Miji remarked. "Unless we want to get blown to bits by BOTH combatants, it would be best to ally ourselves with one and fight right up until the finishing blow. After that, we restrain both of them."

"Oh, I get it now!" Marisa replied, having received a miniature epiphany. "So...who should we go after, Miji?"

Miji breathed a hard sigh. I didn't realize how much that annoys her. Oh well, that's something that I can deal with some other time.

"What are vampires vulnerable to, again? I'm not an expert on the subject if you hadn't noticed."

"So that paper of yours doesn't net you good information then, does it?" Marisa chuckled in response.

Miji didn't reply. I expected that much, since she couldn't really shoot the witch a harsh glare or anything like that.

"Well, let's see..." Marisa began. "Sunlight is as good as an instant death to them."

"That doesn't really help us much since the sun isn't out." I replied. "It is nighttime after all."

"Let me finish!" she replied sharply. "Anyways, they can't cross over water in motion: like a river or a waterfall. They also can't cross broken holly branches or sardine heads, da ze."

Talk about having weird weaknesses...it must suck to be a vampire! You couldn't ever go out in sunlight, the rain, or anything like that! Life would really be a bore, I guess. Having such a large amount of power would be cool, however. I wonder if I can get in on that...

"And finally, the oddest one of them all, vampires will be severely burned if you throw roasted soybeans on them." Marisa continued. "Go figure, da ze."

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't want to be a vampire. Nothing makes any sense!

"Well our choice is obvious, then." Momiji added. "We should ally with Sakuya and go after Remilia."

Wait...what? We're fighting against the vampire? Isn't that akin to suicide?

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." she replied. "She's using some of the stuff that Marisa just mentioned, so it would be wise to go on her side."

That makes sense. If Sakuya is packing anti-vampire gear, then our job shouldn't be too hard.

"Well, alright then." I conceded, squatting down to the ground. "Let's make a plan then. Group huddle!"

Both Miji, who had tuned back into her natural plane of sight, and Marisa walked up to me and sat down beside me. This probably wasn't necessary, but it made me feel better about my leadership capabilities.

"We want the element of surprise to be on our side, so let's start with Marisa using some high-range magic to cancel out some of the projectiles heading towards us."

"No problem, da ze." Marisa noted with a chuckle. "How powerful would you like it?

"Make it loud and flashy enough to stun them, but not so powerful that it'll vaporize them." I replied.

Marisa had a silly grin plastered all over her face. I could tell that she was going to have fun with this. Then again, that's when she's at her best!

"After the bullets are all cleared away, it's Momiji's turn for action." I continued as I turned to her. "I want you to, in this window of opportunity, use your speed to blindside the vampire and knock her into a corner. You have to put her in a position so that she can't counterattack. Can I trust you with this?"

"Sounds fine to me." she replied confidently. "And what will you do?"

"After you've successfully pinned the vampire down, I will casually walk up to Sakuya and offer our assistance." I said. "As far as I know, she can take it in three different directions: she'll ally herself with us, she'll fight us, or she'll simply ignore us and go straight for Remilia. If she allows us to fight on her side, then we should have no problems. If she decides to fight us, Marisa and I should have no problem taking her down. If she ignores us, then Marisa and I will corner her as well."

"Wow, you really thought this through." Marisa noted. "I didn't expect that much to be in that head of yours, da ze."

"When you get attacked on an almost daily basis, you learn how to reason your way out of fights. When that's not an option, you simply have to fight better than they do." I replied. "Also, being able to control insects helps me make strategies a lot since I can feel their movements and stuff. I guess that making plans is one thing I'm good at."

"Well that's pretty cool, but you forgot something." Marisa added. "When it comes to the actual fighting...you suck."

"Pretty much." I nodded in agreement. I should have been offended, but I guess I don't really care that much about it anymore. I can always dream about having more power, but I don't think it'll ever happen. Oh well, at least I've accepted my fate.

"Well if we're all done with this, I'm itchin' to go!" Marisa shouted, pulling out a spell card. "Let's get started, da ze!"

"Is that fine with you, Miji? Are we good to go?"

"Looks as clear as it's gonna get it." she stated. "We're good to go if you're ready."

"Alright, we're going to enter on the count of three." I started, keeping my voice slightly hushed. The air was tense and my nerves were on edge. I'd never actually done anything like this before, so I just hoped that it wouldn't turn out badly.

"One"

Marisa's spell card turned into a small bottle-like object, probably packed with more than enough magic than we needed.

"Two"

Miji got into a crouch and drew her sword, preparing to pounce on the unsuspecting victim.

"Th-"

"Shit!" Miji cried out. "Get down!"

Instinctively, all of us dove to the ground just in time for a searing wave of scarlet energy to rip through the door and sail over our heads. You could literally feel the anger and frustration in the blast. I probably shouldn't tell you what I was thinking at the moment since it was just a garbled mess of profanities.

A brief moment of silence passed before any of us decided to move. I crawled out from under the huge hole in the wall and stood up a little bit farther down the hall. Marisa and Miji, not wanting to lose the element of surprise that we had, followed my lead.

"Are we all accounted for?" I asked in a whisper, breaking the silence. "Everyone alright?"

"I'm unscathed." Miji responded while getting up and readjusting her hat.

"I'm good too, da ze." Marisa added as she rose off of the ground. "Remi's bringin' out the big guns, huh?"

"Seems like it." Miji said, keeping her soft tone. "We should be careful unless we want to make the carpet even more red than it already is."

"Sounds like a plan." I squeaked, still a little bit shocked for obvious reasons. "Do you think they saw us?"

"I don't think so." Miji answered. "I don't want to risk another sweep like that, so we better get this over with quickly."

"I agree." I replied, swallowing every bit of doubt that I had in one big gulp; if we're gonna be reckless, we might as well do it now. "Let's just go on my signal. We ready?"

"Ready when you are, da ze!" Marisa replied haughtily as she tapped the bottle with her fingers. "I've got liquid victory right here."

"I'm ready." Miji replied, assuming her earlier crouching position.

"Alright then..." I began as I tightened my fist in anticipation. However this turned out, the world would be better. I just have to keep telling myself that and I'll be just fine.

"GO!"

Marisa jumped in front of the hole and threw the bottle she was carrying into the center of the scene. I couldn't see what was happening, but I hoped that she knew what she was doing.

"Magical Ruin! Deep Ecological Bomb!"

...Nothing is happening. Goddammit Marisa, you better be-

I was quickly interrupted by a blinding flash of light and an ear-shattering boom, quickly followed by a very loud and slightly disturbing laugh: Marisa'a laugh, of course. She definitely wasn't holding back, I guess. That's good; she fights better that way.

I looked back to find Miji, but she wasn't there. I couldn't see anything due to the explosion, but I assume that Miji had already taken the opportunity to corner the vampire. So far so good! Now all I have to do is convince Sakuya to let us participate. We're almost there!

I hopped into the room and looked around, but I really couldn't see anything due to the odd blue smoke. Marisa really went overboard on the spell, didn't she?

"Stop! Stop! Hold up!" I shouted at the top of my lungs while waving my hands frantically in the air. "We only want to help you, Miss Sakuya! Just let us handle this, alright?"

There wasn't any response. Well, now that I mention it, there was _one_ thing that I saw...

Knives. Everywhere. Flying towards me. Glaring at me.

Well...shit.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

25 June, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: More planning! I hope you all like planning, 'cuz it seems like Wriggle is good at it! At least...that's what I think. You'd eventually have to figure out a way to protect yourself, eh? Why not diplomacy?<strong>

**I originally wanted to stuff the battle scene into this chapter and work with it that way. Instead, I figured that I should dedicate one whole chapter to the brawl instead of mashing it in with this. I hope that makes more sense now.**

**Anyways, I sincerely hoped that you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to leave a review! Hope to you you all next round! Cheers!**


	14. Our Battle Royale

**Author's Notes: I'm back! Wahaha! It only took a month and a half! Aw...**

**I ended up writing 4 drafts of this before I published this. The funny thing is that I ended up doing pretty much the same thing in this draft as the first one. *sigh***

**Also, DtabtD now has 50+ reviews! Neat! I'd like to thank the academy - I mean - my readers. Many thanks for sticking with it!~**

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><p><em>I hopped into the room and looked around, but I really couldn't see anything due to the odd blue smoke. Marisa really went overboard on the spell, didn't she?<em>

_"Stop! Stop! Hold up!" I shouted at the top of my lungs while waving my hands frantically in the air. "We only want to help you, Miss Sakuya! Just let us handle this, alright?"_

_There wasn't any response. Well, now that I mention it, there was one thing that I saw..._

_Knives. Everywhere. Flying towards me. Glaring at me._

_Well...shit._

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><p>There are three main ways that a person could react in this situation. One might go on the offensive and try to beat through the attack using a spell of some sort. Some might attempt to jump out of the way and let the deadly projectiles continue on their course. Others might stay in place, either attempting to block the attack or being simply too scared to move. Take a guess which category I fit into.<p>

Since I'm a youkai, though, I don't have much to fear except for pain. Some lasting damage can be done, but we are never really 'killed'. We'll eventually die due to old age unless a shrine maiden decides to permanently exterminate us, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Looking back, though, I can't understand why I just stood there with my eyes closed. When I'm in this type of situation, I usually try to dodge them and reorient myself so that I can make some sort of counterattack. Something inside me, no matter how much I tried, would not let me move. I was just standing there, getting ready to be stabbed multiple times over. Don't just stand there, idiot! Do something!

"Light Sign! Earthlight Ray!" Marisa's voice cried out from behind me.

Except for the numbness, I can't really remember anything after that.

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><p>"...ing isn't working!" Marisa's voice cried out in frustration; it sounded like she was breathing heavily. "You OK over there?"<p>

"I'm a little bit tied up, but I think I'm fine." Miji's voice replied, also sounding short of breath. "At least the damn smoke is gone."

Opening my eyes, I found myself staring towards a wall that had been blown wide open; broken tree branches littered the ground and the smell of fish wafted through the air. Suddenly, a sharp tingling pain rushed all throughout my body. I desperately wanted to scream, but I couldn't find it inside me. Looking back, I'm glad that I couldn't; it would have alerted Sakuya to the fact that I wasn't unconscious anymore.

At the same time, while I was swishing my painful cries around in my mouth, I noticed a very odd but familiar-tasting liquid. It tasted...bitter. Very bitter. Too bitter. It almost made me want to throw up, which I somehow couldn't manage to do.

It took me a while to notice that the ground underneath me was wet. I could feel the liquid seeping through through my blouse along with numerous sharp pains in chest and other parts of my body. I guess I can say for sure now that I was knifed.

"You both should stop interfering in matters that aren't yours. It's unhealthy, you know." an unfamiliar voice called. It sounded refined, like someone who had practiced good manners for most if not all of her life. This had to be the head maid, Sakuya.

I heard a grunt, probably Miji's, followed by the sound of clanking metal. As much as it pained me, I rolled over onto my left side and, much to my surprise, didn't see much of anything going on at the moment.

I was lying on the ground near what I later found out was the eastern wall of Remilia's bedroom. A woman dressed in a blue and white maid outfit (which at first I noticed was very similar to Etsuko's outfit) with green ribbons tying her silver hair into braids was fingering a pair of terrifyingly sharp silver knives: each with a blue handle. She was glaring menacingly at Marisa, who was gearing herself up for battle. In an instant, the witch summoned a magic that I hadn't seen from her before; four charm-like spheres, colored red, blue, green, and purple, surrounded and spun in place around her in a dizzying circle.

Momiji was doing as best as she could to rush Sakuya, but to no avail. She was pinned down to the eastern wall, shield up and ready to attack whenever the moment presented itself. The knives keeping her in place were...rebounding off of the walls? How the hell did Sakuya figure out how to do that? Anyways...Momiji was under much heavier fire than Marisa, probably because facing the wolf tengu up close at this point meant having your head separated from your body.

Finally, there was a small pink figure off in the corner of the room. Everything was all blurry, however, and I couldn't see any other details. It just looked like a pink blob. Could this be Remilia?

And while all this was going on, I was lying there helplessly on the ground. I couldn't sense any of my bug brethren around, which made me feel even more powerless. If I'm correct, Sakuya cleared them out so that there would be no 'surprises' for the mistress. And if that's true, she must have been the one to kill them all. The exterminator of my loyal bug friends...must herself be exterminated! Sakuya, you just made this personal.

"Eat it, scarlet bitch!" Marisa cried out, charging towards the knife-throwing maid. All four of her orbs lit up into a painfully bright blue, launching four moderately large lasers straight at the maid. As if by instinct, Sakuya...stood still? With a small grunt of disappointment, she pulled out a golden pocket watch while staring death in the face. What is she thinking?

In the time that it had taken me to recognize what had been going on, she had seemingly teleported behind Marisa. Not only that, but there was a huge wall of knives where she had been standing earlier. I closed my eyes tightly, anticipating Marisa's scream. It didn't come.

Instead, I heard the sound of metal clanking against metal. Opening my eyes slowly, I saw Momij streaking behind Marisa, stopping most of the knives with her shield. The rebounding shots, however, managed to nick the rest of her body; her right arm, which carried her sword, took the most abuse. Her eyes glowed with a marked ferocity, something that I remembered from our encounter back in the forest.

"I've got your back!" Momiji's voice cried. "End this before the watch can recharge!"

Not even bothering with a response, Marisa charged back towards Sakuya. This time, however, her orbs were spitting out large purple stars that were spread out widely over the area of the room. Coming from all directions, they closed in upon the maid.

"Hmph." Sakuya grunted, hopping to the side to avoid a series of well-aimed bullets. "I haven't seen this before. Are you perhaps - as you would say - 'kickin it old school'?"

"Hell yeah!" Marisa boasted, launching yet another volley of purple stars. "Just touch one and see what happens! I dare ya!"

Momiji at this point was in a crouching position and staring at the barrage, possibly looking for a point of attack. From what I could see, there wasn't one.

"Well if that's the case, shouldn't I be scared?" Sakuya asked, pulling a knife out of thin air. "I'm done playing games with you, Kirisame."

I don't like where this is going. Those two better finish this up quickly...

"Now!" Momiji shouted, pouncing forward into a full frontal assault. She looked like a white missile - a bullet in and of herself.

Marisa, silently acknowledging the cue, fired off yet another flurry of stars. These, however, were arranged into lines. There were small gaps that...wait a second! This is exactly what Meiling tried to do to me earlier!

"3..." Sakuya said, pulling out her watch. She must be referring to the amount of time she has before she can stop time again.

Momiji, noting the countdown, continued to blaze towards Sakuya. Marisa, on the other hand, kept raining bullets down in the same pattern.

"2..."

"Too late!" Momiji cried, drawing her sword as she came within striking distance of the maid. One fell swoop would be all it would take to literally disarm her. That is, if it had actually hit its mark.

Before I could realize what would happened, a painful howl resounded throughout the halls; Momiji had found herself running into a wall of knives. Losing control of her flight, she careened into the north wall of the room, creating a series of very large cracks. Blood was squirting onto the scarlet walls and carpet as the wolf tengu lay there writhing in pain.

Marisa, on the other hand, received an aerial axe kick to the head. Sent plummeting to the ground, she bounced and eventually skidded all the way to the south wall. Her orbs smashed harmlessly on the ground, disappearing into a fine magical mist.

"Now why would I give you two enough time to attack me?" Sakuya remarked, staring at the fruits of her trickery. "Honestly, I'm surprised that you didn't think that far ahead. Beaten by a simple trick. I'm disappointed."

Marisa, who to my surprise was still moving, pushed herself off of the ground into a crouch with a little bit of difficulty. A stream of blood poured down over her face: one marked with pain and, oddly enough, excitement.

"Sounding so...high and mighty there...Sakuya." the witch spoke in between labored breaths. "Don't let it...go to your head...da ze."

Sakuya merely laughed. It was a sadistic, haughty, and almost evil laugh. I was almost shivering in my little pool of blood from the mere sound of her voice, not to mention I had to listen to the cries of my fallen companion as she ripped most of the knives out of her chest. Applying pressure to the wounds, she was managing to heal herself quickly. I can only hope, though, that she gets back into the fight soon. I don't think that Marisa can take Sakuya by herself.

Grabbing an assortment of knives from thin air, Sakuya took aim at Marisa and let loose. The gleaming bullets screamed towards her like bees toward flowers: eager to pollinate their target with copious amounts of death.

Quickly, Marisa created some sort of blue shield. Marked with a hexagonal pattern, it hovered front of her directly in the path of the incoming blades. Most of the knives simply bounced off harmlessly, while others stuck into the wall behind the witch.

"As long as...I still have this...you haven't won." Marisa puffed, leaning back against the wall.

Her comment was met with yet another wave of knives, each bouncing harmlessly off of the blue shield for a second time. As futile as the attack seemed, Marisa's face was starting to show signs of extreme fatigue. I don't know how much longer she can keep this up.

Trying desperately to find some way to fight back, I slowly pulled one of her knives out of my chest. It hurt like hell, believe me. Trying my best not to scream, I finally slid it out of the wound and grasped it shakily in my right hand. When the time comes, let's hope that I can use this.

"Let me put this into terms that even you can understand. You and I, we're both human." Sakuya said to Marisa. "Can't you see that I could kill you right now if I wanted to? You won't come back to life when I kill you, unlike your youkai friends."

This time, she pulled out the pocketwatch. In an instant, a mass of silver knives spun in a circle around the maid, flying true towards the witch. Again, they mostly crashed against the shield and instantly died. Marisa, having used most of her energy to stop the attack, dropped down to one knee in exhaustion. The magical barrier, in turn, lost it's brilliant blue hue and faded into a desperate grey: Marisa probably couldn't take another shot like that.

"All I have to do is pause time, slit your throat, and you'll be dead. I'd rather not do that since you're one of Patchy's favorite friends, but I guess I have to." she continued, pulling out a single knife. "So what's your decision, Kirisame? Do you choose life or death?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Momiji steadily raising herself into a crouch; her face reeked of pain, but she looked ready to pounce. Marisa, probably noticing this as well, put on her characteristic grin. A plan seemed to be forming on the edge of my mind. If Momiji and Marisa could just follow my lead, I think we could still win this. The problem, though, is whether we can pull it off before her watch can recharge.

"I choose...victory." Marisa grunted pridefully. I'll take that as a yes.

"That wasn't an option." Sakuya replied blithely. "Oh well. Death it is."

Throwing caution to the wind, I threw the knife towards the maid with as much force as I could. Because of my poor aim and lack of knife throwing ability, it simply whizzed past Sakuya's head.

"What the?" Sakuya cried as she turned towards me. "You're-"

At that instant, Momiji sprung towards Sakuya and brought her shield down. Her legs, however, wouldn't support the offset weight of her shield as well as she had hoped. Even with most of it's force lost, though, the strike came down hard upon the maid. Her pocket watch, which for some reason wasn't very well attached to her body, was knocked away from it's owner.

"Shit!" Momiji cried, skidding on the floor. Sakuya, off guard from the swift attack, hopped away from the fallen tengu and stared at the watch's path. It was bouncing slightly to my left, within arm's reach.

I swiftly reached out and grabbed the golden timepiece, grasping it firmly in my left hand. Pressing a small button on the side, I popped it open.

Immediately, all of the color drained from the world around me, turning it into a silver paradise. Time had come to a grinding halt. This wasn't what I had planned, but it'll work just fine.

Pushing myself up from the ground, which was actually pretty difficult due to the pain, I stood up and looked around me. Immediately, I noticed that a knife had been flying towards me. Due to the watch's effect, however, it simply stood in place. Marisa's face was frozen into a clever grin, Momiji was contorted in pain, and Sakuya's was riddled with horror.

Looking at the watch, I saw one of the arms swiftly making its way around its circular path. If I'm correct, this is how much time I have until the effect wears off - about ten seconds or so as I later found out. I better act quickly.

As I walked towards the frozen maid, numerous plans flooded my mind: ways that I could end the battle right here and now. I could always give her a taste of her own medicine by slitting her throat, but I somehow feel like that would make the vampire angry with me. I guess I'll have to go with knocking her out, then. I could always try and choke her, but that wouldn't work very well since I have these knives protruding from my chest and I'm still weak from before. Maybe I could punch her in the head? Nah, that wouldn't work either. Wait a minute...I know what I can do. After all, Momiji knew what she was doing.

I approached Momiji and found what I was looking for: her shield. Plucking it out of her grasp, I was surprised by how light it was; here was this strong piece of durable metal that even an injured weakling bug like myself could pick up with ease. As long as it did what it was supposed to, though, I didn't care.

"Guess what happens when you mess with my friends." I said, gathering up every ounce of bravado that I could. "You just plain fucking lose."

Lifting the shield up as high as I could, I brought it down swiftly on the maid's head. It was a sensation like no other. As the two objects met, I felt a surge of indescribable ecstasy course through my body. My spine tingled with excitement. My legs were shaking like two small trees in the wind. I almost wanted to cry out in the frozen night about this surreal pleasure. I had never felt anything like it before, and I liked it. Scratch that...I loved it.

There wasn't a response, but I didn't expect one; after all, time was still frozen. Do I have time for another-

As quickly as the thought had come into my mind, my world exploded into brilliant color once again. The sound of my shield's collision with her head rung true, and Sakuya simply fell to the ground on top of Momiji. Mission accomplished.

"So..." I began, wincing through the pain of my own wounds. "We win."

Momiji, feeling the maid fall upon her back, immediately pushed her off and sat up on the ground. Marisa, who at this point was laughing like crazy, got up and walked over to our huddle. Since my arm was going numb, I dropped the shield on the ground with a clang.

"But not without some injuries." Momiji added, clutching her chest again to stop the majority of the bleeding. "Remind me not to listen to one of your plans ever again."

"That counts for me too, da ze." Marisa agreed, still laughing. "I'm good except for this wound on my head. Still, that was fun! Let's do it again!"

"Gee thanks, guys. I can really count on you." I said sarcastically. I took the time to carefully remove the rest of the knives that were stuck in my body. They struck mostly around my chest and stomach, but a stray one hit me in the head; it was a stray shot, wasn't it? As a result, my white blouse was now covered in splotchy patches of warm blood. Dried blood also coated my head and face, though I didn't really pay much attention to that at first.

"If anything, two good things came out of this." I said after de-knifing myself. "We ended the fight without getting ourselves killed and we managed to snag this."

I pulled out the pocket watch and held it out in front of me. Momiji looked at me in disbelief while Marisa, again, continued to laugh.

"Oh man! We're set for life!" Marisa said, snatching the watch out of my hand. "Just think of all the things that we could do with this!"

"Don't be too hasty, Marisa." Momiji replied. "Although, it is nice to have. We might be able to find a use for it in the future."

"And it was all due to our teamwork." I added; I almost wanted to give a friendship speech but I held back. "There isn't anything that we can't do, right guys?"

"I'd drink to that, da ze." Marisa noted emphatically. "Miss Knives totally forgot about you. If she had noticed that you woke up, we would have been devil food."

"Speaking of which, aren't _we_ forgetting someone?" Momiji said, pointing her sword in the direction of the pink blob in the corner.

Oh wait! We did forget someone! I guess I got caught up in the moment, huh?

"Just wait here for a second, alright?" I said, walking away from the group. "I'll take care of this."

I approached the corner and discovered, not to my surprise, that the pink figure was a vampire. She wore a pink dress that was complemented with scarlet trim and ribbons. She also wore a pink cap that didn't seem to be of a native style which rested upon her light-blue short hair. She seemed formal, refined, and charismatic; everything from the way she sat on the ground to the way that she stood up to greet me was elegant. Yeah, I can see why Marisa calls her 'Madame Charisma'.

On the ground surrounding her, however, was a ring of broken tree branches and fish heads. Also, there were fish heads attached to the ceiling by knives. Guess who put those there.

"Excuse me, are you Remilia Scarlet?" I asked in a humble tone. It wouldn't help me if I acted rudely. Who knows what she'd do to me...

"I am." she stated calmly. "If you would please let me out, I will forgive your intrusion."

With my foot, I brushed away the makeshift barrier. Before I knew it, I found myself on the receiving end of a powerful tackle. I hit the ground hard and Remilia landed on top of me. I tried to break free, but she wouldn't let me free.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she shouted at me. "You come in here and not only accost my chief maid, but you destroy my bedroom in the process! Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now!"

Wait...what? I thought she said that she'd forgive my...oh. She'd forgive my 'intrusion', but she didn't say anything about the fight and property damage. Whoops.

"You were losing and we saved you." I replied, still trying to break free. "We're really sorry for any damage that we caused in the process."

Speaking of 'us', why aren't Marisa and Momiji coming to help me?

"You better be you little punk." she spat angrily. "Now then, where are my manners? What is your name?"

"I'm Wriggle Nightbug. It's nice to meet you. Now will you please get off of me?"

"Not until I get some answers." she replied in a hostile tone. "Now speak."

"Can't...breathe..." I added, placing my hands over my throat. This was slightly true, since she was sitting on my freshly injured chest.

Getting up off of me, Remilia backed away a bit. I, with the miniature vampire off of my chest, stood up and again approached Remilia. She was, I noticed, much smaller than I am.

"Ok, let me ask you this." she began impatiently. "What the hell just happened?"

"Well, we just knocked your maid unconscious." I replied. "It looked like you were about to be defeated, so we decided to step in and help you out. No problem, right?"

"Wrong." she said. "I had it perfectly under control. I was surprised, though, at how disrespectful she was. It's unlike her."

Disrespectful? I thought that Sakuya was supposed to be one of the most loyal humans in Gensokyo. There's no way that she would disrespect her master like that out of her own free will.

"I mean, she just waltzed on in here without knocking, woke me up forcefully, and didn't even bring my morning tea. Then she said 'I'm tired of your tyranical rule, Remilia. I won't stand for this oppression.' What in the world is that supposed to mean?"

"I think I can explain." I replied. "You don't know anyone by the name of Mystia Lorelei, correct?"

"No, I don't." she said. "Explain."

"Well, she's a night sparrow youkai with the ability to mess with people's minds with her songs." I continued. "We think that Sakuya was a victim along with Patchouli and Koakuma. We don't know yet if Meiling or anyone else in the manor was affected."

"So Sakuya isn't my loyal maid anymore?"

"I think so." I replied, trying my best not to sound offensive or rude at this crucial moment. "If I had to take a guess, I'd say that she now disrespects any form of authority and refuses to follow orders from anyone but herself."

The vampire, who at this point had remained cool, calm, and collected, suddenly seemed to be holding something back: her tears. It took all of her effort to restrain them and keep her composure.

"But I...loved her..." Remilia stammered. "She was perfect and wonderful...why did this have to happen?"

"Don't worry, Madame Scarlet." I spoke as I patter her shoulder, attempting to console her. "We'll make this all better, ok? That's what we're trying to do."

"You better change Sakuya back..." Remilia continued.

"Believe me, we'll fix her."

"...now leave before I decide to hunt you down." the vampire commanded, her tone becoming noticeably more hostile. "I need to have some time to myself."

"Alright, we'll leave you alone." I said, turning away from Remilia. "Good night, and sorry again for the intrusion."

She didn't respond, but I don't think that there was much of a reason to. Mysty is screwing around too much with her power. All she's bringing is sadness and grief, and I can't allow that. She wants to make the world better, but she's only making it worse.

"C'mon guys. Let's go." I said, walking up to Marisa and Miji again. "How are Mysty and Alice holding up?"

"They're sleeping right now, it seems." Miji replied with her usual blank gaze. "We can go and take them by surprise if you want."

"Ok, that's good. Before we do that, though, are there any other things that we need to do here?"

"Um...we need to get my clothes back." Marisa said, jumping into the conversation. "We also need to check on Flan, da ze."

Who is Flan? Isn't that supposed to be some sort of dessert?

"With all due respect, they shouldn't keep two ridiculously powerful vampires under one roof." Momiji added. "Even if they are sisters."

Oh, so she's Remilia's sister? I'm scared. Should I be?

"Well then, let's get going." I added. "Oh wait, I forgot something."

I pulled the green vial from earlier out of my pocket. I'm surprised that it hadn't been smashed to bits, but I guess Marisa reinforces her magic pretty well. I tossed it lightly to the magician, who eagerly caught it and knocked it back.

"Thanks, Wriggle." Marisa replied with a grin on her face. "Was that the only one you had?"

"Unfortunately, yes." I admitted. "Since Miji and I are youkai, we don't need it as much as you do."

"Well, thanks again." she said. "And now I'm pumped and ready to go again! Have at thee, foul beast!"

Oh Marisa, your antics never cease to put a smile on my face. Now that she has more energy and I have less, I'm going to really need to keep her on a leash.

Speaking of which, I'm surprised that I'm not feeling tired. I've been up since when the sun was straight up in the sky, and now the moon is in its place. Not only that, but I was injured in this battle and I'm probably going to be doing a lot more things before the night ends. Well, I brought this upon myself. This is going to be a long night.

"Well then without further ado, let's get going." I began, stepping through the gigantic hole in the south wall. Hopefully we'd be able to wrap up this misadventure soon with little to no trouble...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

6 August, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: First off, I would like to thank both Achariyth1 and Etherdrone for doing prereads of this chapter. As you know, I'm uncomfortable with my ability to write fight scenes. The extra help and suggestions really came in handy! Thanks guys!<strong>

**Also, I am coming back into school soon. This means less time on the story and more time on other pursuits. Then again, it won't really seem like much of a difference compared to this last wait.**

**Anyways, I'll see you all next time. I'll try and be more prompt this time, alright? Don't forget to leave a review! Cheers!**


	15. Our Unfinished Business

**Author's Notes: I have been more-than-busy playing Ten Desires as of late, and I must admit that it is a good addition to the Touhou universe. Honestly, it's not my favorite (that title belongs to Mystic Square), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.**

**This chapter is the longest one to date. I was planning on throwing some of the next chapter's events into this one but, yet again, decided not to do so. This chapter might have been MUCH longer if I had. Ah well, you'll get to see it in a week or two.**

**Identify the reference to a famous American poem and win yourself a cookie! Either that or you get a congratulations message. That's something to celebrate about, right?**

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><p><em>Oh Marisa, your antics never cease to put a smile on my face. Now that she has more energy and I have less, I'm going to really need to keep her on a leash.<em>

_Speaking of which, I'm surprised that I'm not feeling tired. I've been up since when the sun was straight up in the sky, and now the moon is in its place. Not only that, but I was injured in this battle and I'm probably going to be doing a lot more things before the night ends. Well, I brought this upon myself. This is going to be a long night._

_"Well then without further ado, let's get going." I began, stepping through the gigantic hole in the south wall. Hopefully we'd be able to wrap up this misadventure soon with little to no trouble..._

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><p>A windowless hallway at night can be a frightening thing. I was especially disturbed because the walls are blood red and the fact that I almost got myself killed a few minutes earlier. I'm really starting to hate this place.<p>

All three of us had stopped bleeding, but our clothes still showed the damage. Marisa had a layer of dried blood caked over her elated grin, Miji's blouse had turned a dark red and had been ripped in multiple places, and I was just as I had been before: there were splotchy circles of a lighter red on my blouse and sections of my pants had turned from blue to purple.

From what I've heard from Reimu, the spell card system was designed to prevent these kinds of fights. By simply challenging someone to a duel, they would be restricted to using non-lethal force. If both opponents want to use lethal force, however, then they both must fight without following the rules. I can't imagine why she would leave such a giant loophole in the system, but I'm not going to bring it up right now. We have bigger fish to fry.

"Imagine all the cool stuff we could do with this, da ze!" Marisa exclaimed, eagerly showing off her new toy. "We're the queens of time! Nobody can stop us now!"

I half expected her to break out into maniacal laughter, but that didn't happen. Maybe I shouldn't assume things like that.

Then again, I don't really trust Marisa with the watch. She'd just be using it to steal stuff from places that are out of our way. Not only that, but I don't want her to break it or something like that.

"Hey Marisa, would you mind giving me the watch?" I asked. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that-"

"She doesn't trust you." Miji interrupted with a smug grin.

Thanks Miji. I can really count on you to keep your mouth shut. Though in all honesty, what was I expecting from one of Aya's associates?

"Aw, but I wanna keep the shiny..." the witch moaned, stroking it as if it were a small animal.

"You may have it back when we're out of here, alright? That's a promise." I replied. "I'll need it if I'm going to grab your stuff from the sex demon."

"True, da ze." Marisa noted, scratching the back of her neck. "I'm not going back in there for fear of seduction, so I'll let you take care of that."

She tossed me the watch, which had a dull shine even though there wasn't any light hitting it. Stuffing it into my pant's pocket for safe-keeping, I started walking more quickly so that I wouldn't fall behind my teammates.

"So let's go over what we need to do. First, we should stop by the library and grab all of Marisa's gear." I said. "Next, we find and make sure that Remilia's sister is alright. Third, we get the hell out of here. This place is really starting to scare me."

"Don't forget about eating and sleeping, da ze." Marisa added. "I'm human, you know."

She's right. We're all exhausted and hungry for the most part, not to mention that Marisa probably has it worse than either Miji or I. Maybe we can work this out, though, so that we don't waste time.

"I'm fine with that, but we can't just stop." I replied. "How about this? You go to the kitchen and borrow some food while Miji and I go and tie up loose ends. Sound good?"

Miji nodded in approval before turning and whispering something to Marisa. What could they want to keep hidden from me?

"Sounds great! I'll be back in a jiffy." the witch, bolting down the hallway with intent to ravage the mansion's food supply. Then again, I'm not surprised. Humans have to eat a lot in order to stay alive, and I think that she hasn't eaten for a while. It wouldn't help us to have a member of our team weakened by hunger.

"So what should we tackle first?" Miji asked, her eyes finally beginning to show hints of happiness. It feels like she's finally warming up to me, but it's not like she was especially cold at first. She had treated me like an enemy - it wasn't my fault, but I can understand why she would feel that way - but maybe she and I have learned something along this journey.

"Honestly, I don't care." I replied, shrugging. "I don't want to visit the sex duo again, but I also don't want to meet this vampire's sister any time soon. Neither option is appealing."

"Well, we'll take the lesser of two evils." Miji said. "Let's pay the librarians a visit."

Now I'm scared. If the sex duo are less troublesome than Flan, then she must really be dangerous. It's a good thing I have friends like Marisa and Miji to protect me!...Right?

"Fine. Let's get this over with." I admitted with an annoyed tone. "You know how to get there, so lead the way."

Miji put on that blank glare again. To be honest, it disturbs me. Normally when I look into someone's eyes, I can tell if they're happy, sad, thinking about slaughtering me, or any number of other things. Looking at hers, I can't really see anything. I don't know why this makes me upset, but it does.

Marching forward, I couldn't help but feel a lot better about myself. If it weren't for me, both Miji and Marisa would have been maimed beyond recognition. I was on top of the world, able to claim victory even without my bug brethren. It didn't get any better than this.

"So Miji, may I ask you a question?"

"You just did." she replied with a small chuckle.

I responded with a long and overly drawn-out sigh. Her sense of humor needs some touching up, that's for sure. They must not teach Tengu how to make good jokes during training.

"That's not what I meant, but fine. May I ask you two questions?"

"Only if you allow me to ask one in return." she noted with a smile.

"Sure." I replied, taking a deep breath and thinking about my question before revealing it. "Despite how angry you seemed to be back in the forest, you didn't force me to go with you to fetch Mysty, you didn't hit me again for good measure, and, most importantly, you didn't go and take care of it yourself. Why did you just leave me there alone to do whatever I wanted?"

Miji, surprised by my question, flashed back into her normal plain of vision and shot me a harsh glare. It seemed like she was both angry and embarrassed.

"Well, to be completely honest with you, I had an appointment with one of my superiors. Especially since it was an evaluation of my work this month, being late wouldn't have been very good for my record. I was already breaking code by leaving the mountain and roughing up an 'innocent individual', so I didn't want anyone to become suspicious if I was gone for a long time."

"Well, I guess that makes sense." I replied. "Just out of curiosity, who is the tengu who gives you your evaluation?"

Miji's ear twitched violently. Something tells me that she didn't like the question.

"Curse my oath of honesty..." she muttered. "My superior officer is Aya Shameimaru. She's the one who evaluates me."

What a coincidence! The two tengu of the Bunbunmaru newspaper also happen to be acquaintances outside of work. Why am I not surprised that they have such a close relationship?

"Wouldn't it be funny if you guys had been on a date?" I added jokingly. "You two would make a great couple, wouldn't you?"

Miji deadpanned, shooting me a look that screamed 'Shut your mouth you dirty bug or I will rub you into the carpet with my shield.'

"I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve?" I continued with a chuckle. "By the way, that wouldn't happen to have been a physical evaluation, would it?"

"SHUT! UP!" she shouted at me, unsheathing her sword in a swift movement. "I don't have to take this from a lousy piece of trash like you! You wouldn't know love if it slapped you right across the-"

Immediately realizing her slip, Miji bit her lip and blushed a deep scarlet. Despite the fact that I was within her blade's range, I didn't feel threatened. She was more embarrassed than angry, and I knew why.

"Oh, I get it." I paused, picking my words carefully. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. With everything that's been going on lately, I can understand why you're upset."

"No, that's fine." she spoke softly, sheathing her sword. "I need to get over it. The Aya that I knew is dead and gone."

There was an awkward silence between us as we continued to walk down the halls. We didn't dare make eye contact. I had probably gone too far and, because of that, I felt awful. She looked hurt, and it was my fault.

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><p>Over the course of a few minutes or so, we made a couple of turns before spotting the familiar set of double doors. I wasn't especially eager to go in any time soon, but I had the watch with me. Hopefully, it'd be as simple as freezing time, grabbing the clothes, and running out before the world flooded with color again. Then again, pretty much nothing has gone according to plan lately. I'm going to expect the worst.<p>

Miji still looked pitiful; her normally fierce composure had died and had been replaced by something much more disheartening. My own guilt had been steadily gnawing on me, and it annoyed me. I don't know why, but I couldn't stand to see Miji like that. At first it made me sad, but now it just made me angry. Why does she think that her relationship makes her any better than the rest of us?

"Alright, I can't take this anymore. I can't stand that look on your face." I said abruptly. "I'm sorry, but you need to suck it up. Sure you had great times with her, but those are-"

"What would you know, you little prick?" she shouted back at me. Her gaze burned a hole through my skull.

"What I know is this. You're letting your emotions run wild and they're hurting you." I replied calmly. "It's painful for me as well as for you, so I can't say that I'm doing this out of empathy; what I can say, though, is that I'll make sure that we fix Aya. So for now, please don't feel hurt. Let's just get through all of this and we can sort it out when we get there. Deal?"

Miji didn't respond at first. She simply looked at me with her big beady eyes as if she was begging for my sympathy. And the saddest part of it all was that I had no sympathy left to give.

"I see where you're coming from." she finally spoke in a soft tone. "I apologize for jeopardizing the mission."

"If anyone should be saying that they're sorry, it's me." I replied, fiddling with one of my antennae. "I really need to pick my words more carefully."

"You do...but I'm glad that I have someone who understands how I feel." she replied bashfully.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm here for you if you need me."

And then she did something that I definitely wasn't expecting. Miji gave me a hug. She was warm and soft, her body like a plush cushion that welcomed me into her embrace. Even though I was shorter than she was, it felt like an authentic heartwarming hug.

"You're a great friend, Wriggle." she said softly. "Thank you."

What she said struck me as odd. How could I, the person who had just assaulted her love with another tengu, be a 'good friend'? If anything, I'm the worst friend in existence! As much as I wanted to tell her that, though, I couldn't. Instead...

"You too, Miji." I said, patting her on the back. "Now let's finish this the right way."

Detaching from me, Miji looked at me as if I were a counselor of infinite wisdom. As scary as that sounds to me, it's comforting to know that she trusts me completely now. That's one less thing to worry about.

"Ok, so...back to business." I noted, continuing my walk towards the library's doors with Miji by my side. "I guess I'll just run in there and grab the stuff that I need. No problem."

"That sounds fine." Miji responded, nodding her head in agreement. "I'll just wait for you out here and charge in if you need backup."

"I hope that won't be the case, but you can't be too sure." I said, pulling the pocket watch out of my pocket. "What's going on in there, by the way?"

"Nobody's moving in there, so they must be asleep or unconscious."

"Well then, wish me luck!"

After giving an obligatory hand wave, I popped open the watch and the color faded just as it had done before. Now that I think about it, this mansion looks a lot less scary when you aren't surrounded by red all the time.

Removing the mop that I had placed in the door handles earlier, I slowly opened the door and looked inside. Just like Miji said, each and every one of them, which included normal fairies, fairy maids, a succubus, and a magician, were lying on the floor. I didn't want to step on any of them, so I simply flew over them.

Patchouli was lying on a table in the same position as when I had left; the only change, however, was that the bottle of sake that she was holding had fallen and broken into shards on the floor. Koakuma, that red-haired sex devil, was slumped over a fairy maid, her hand groping the fairy's breast. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. Even so, it might have distracted me a little longer if I hadn't noticed what I had come here for.

Underneath a fairy along the right wall was a heap of black and white clothing. Well, any clothing would have looked black and white as long as time was frozen. It was the witch's hat that gave it away, though, along with the pair of headphones next to it.

Flying over to my target, I checked the watch. It was about half-way around the circle, which probably means that my time is almost half gone. I should probably hurry this up.

Since the fairy was lying on top of Marisa's clothes, I had to roll her over onto another fairy so that I could grab what I needed. Everything that I was looking for was there: the familiar hat, the black dress with the white apron, the pair of black shoes, and both pairs of headphones. Picking it up, I realized that it all wasn't too heavy. It's only clothing after all.

Pushing back off of the ground, I once again looked at the succubus. She seemed...too content, for some reason. I should fix that!

I positioned myself over her, taking a short look at her. Even without her trying to seduce me, I have to admit that she was pretty attractive; not attractive enough for me to rethink my actions, though. Without further hesitation, I brought my foot back and quickly slammed it into the side of her head. It wasn't a very powerful kick since I was still pretty weak from the fight, but it'd definitely hurt later. Who knows? Maybe it'd give her a massive headache? She deserves it.

My mission completed, I took one more look at the library. It has such a feeling of royalty, knowledge, and power: things that I couldn't help but want. If it weren't inhabited by the sex demon and the (what I assume is) the party-loving magician, however, I might actually spend some time here. Who knows? Maybe I could become really smart! I guess that I'll have to hurry up, or else-

As soon as the thought had entered my mind, the world exploded into color, followed quickly by a sharp yelp. Time had run out. Darn it.

"What the-" the devil screamed, clutching the spot where I had kicked her. "YOU!"

From here, I could have done three things. The first was to fly out and lock the door. The second was to apologize and beg for forgiveness (as if I'd do that!). And the third...

"Guess who!" I shouted in response. "Wriggle Nightbug? Oh good, you remembered! You still sore from that kick to the crotch?"

...was to act all high and mighty, boasting about my accomplishment. I like doing that. It makes me feel powerful.

"Did you just kick me AGAIN?" she yelled, standing up with a wobble.

"Of course I did." I said, keeping my haughty tone.

"That was uncalled for! You got your revenge earlier, so just leave me be!" she replied before taking a softer tone. "I won't try and bother you, so will you please not bother me?"

And...now I couldn't help but feel guilty. She was right, though. I had already gotten my revenge. I can't just drop my act though. If I show any sign of weakness, she'll pounce! I just know that she will!

"Ah ah ah! You're forgetting something, aren't you?" I asked, scratching an itch on the back of my neck. "What's the magic word?"

"...Please." she mumbled soflty.

"Much better!" I replied with a thumbs-up. "Well, I'll leave you to your little orgy. See ya!"

With that, I flew out of the library. Just as I had done before, I closed both of the doors and stuck a mop handle inside the door handles. Now that I think about it, why did I lock them in? I guess I was just trying to be safe, but I really didn't have a good reason other than that.

"You're late." Miji noted jokingly. "That took you 5 seconds too long."

Great, there's more horrible tengu humor. I gave her the death glare, to which she responded with a laugh.

"Oh don't worry, I'm only kidding you." she continued. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No, but I still didn't like it." I replied. "At least it's over with. We can leave now, right?"

"Not so fast. We have to get Marisa and check on that other vampire."

Of course. It looks like we're never gonna be able to leave at this rate...

"So let's go get Marisa first. I don't want to be carrying these clothes forever."

"Sounds like a plan." she replied, walking forward and taking on that blank stare as usual. Again, I couldn't help but feel somewhat unnerved by it. The sooner I get over this feeling the better.

It's not like we were any hurry, but we walked at a brisk pace. I think that we both wanted to get this fiasco over and done with as soon as possible. Then again, you never know when something's gonna come along and bite you in the butt...

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><p>It didn't take too long for us to return to the main lobby and that oh-so-familiar painting on the ceiling (it still makes me shudder to this day). We didn't get lost or anything, which was a plus. Then again, I'd expect nothing less of my tengu companion.<p>

The more I thought about it, the more that this incident made me feel uneasy. In the back of my mind, I put myself on the same level as Reimu. I am resolving an incidents, which was caused by a youkai, which I guess gives me the title of 'youkai exterminator'. I don't like it too much, but I guess I'll take it.

Speaking of which, has Reimu even heard about this? Is she treating this as a serious incident? Is she on the case right now? It'd be nice to have her help us out, but I'm not so sure that she'd like to. She is Reimu, after all.

"Well...she should be heading this way." Miji noted. "I can see her walking towards us."

Again, I'd expect nothing less of my tengu companion.

"Well, that's good." I said, plopping the pile of clothes on the ground. "It's less work for us. Let's just wait here, then."

Miji took a seat on the hard wood, and I immediately followed her lead. A wave of relief spread throughout my body, especially my legs. The weird thing, though, is that I didn't even know that I was tired. Am I really that oblivious?

I thought back to my conversation with Miji earlier, and I couldn't help but feel that I had been too harsh. Even if I had already been forgiven (I think), I can't help but feel guilty.

"Miji?" I spoke up. "Can I ask you a qu- I mean, ask you two questions?"

"Sure. Fire away." she said, turning towards me.

"Are you still angry at me from earlier? I mean, I was being pretty rude."

"Don't sweat it." she replied calmly. "Everyone has moments like those."

"But I can't help but feel guilty about it. You know what I'm saying?"

"Not really." she replied frankly. "I'd give you some speech about how to be dispassionate and all, but you wouldn't want to hear it."

"I guess not."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. It's that kind of silence where you want to say something but you don't because you're too afraid to. I can't say that I was afraid of anything, but I didn't really want to continue the conversation. Luckily, I didn't have to.

"Hey! Hey! Da! Ze!~" Marisa's voice sang happily from one of the corridors. "It's my favorite time of day!~"

"Marisa!" Miji shouted. "We got your clothes!"

"Oh, really?" she asked, emerging from the door farthest to the left; she was carrying a huge mound of food in both of her hands. "Thanks. You guys are quick."

"So are you." I added, getting up with a groan. "But we don't really need to eat. Why'd you carry this much food with you?"

"Take a guess, da ze."

You stole it.

"You wanted to share some with us." I replied, opting not to point out the obvious.

"Well...close enough." she said, placing the large mass of foodstuffs on the floor. "But check out this haul! We have enough food to feed an army!"

She was right. About half of the pile was meat, but they weren't any kind that I was familiar with. There were two kinds: a big round piece of red-brown meat stuck to a bone (which I later learned was pork) and small circular pieces of white meat that were on a wooden skewer (which I, again, later learned was chicken), both of which were wrapped in some sort of thin net. Is that what they used to capture the animals/youkai?

About a fourth of the pile was an assortment of fruits and vegetables. I counted seven different types: tomatoes, lettuce, celery, oranges, apples, grapes, and peaches. The remaining fourth was made up of desserts: specifically, cookies and tarts.

"Why would you bring so much junk food?" Miji asked, reaching for a chicken skewer. "That's not good for you at all."

"But Sakuya makes THE BEST desserts!" Marisa moaned in response, holding up one of the treats for us to see. "You just gotta try one. You won't regret it!"

If the crazy maid baked them, I wouldn't be surprised if they were poisoned. Then again, what do I know about treachery?

"Oh, I did skip all of the stuff with blood cooked into it." Marisa added, stuffing a tart into her mouth. "Gives everything a bitter taste."

That makes sense, I guess. I did have that bitter taste in my mouth during the fight...

"You going to eat something, Wriggle?" Miji asked, biting down on one of the chicken spheres.

I reached into the pile and grabbed a huge piece of pork. It smelled wonderful, like that smell when Mysty cooks her lampreys. Taking a much-larger-than-necessary bite, I found it to be pretty good. It's not as delicious as human flesh, but it's tasty enough, I guess.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Marisa said, snatching up her clothes from where I had placed them. "No more front-page material for ya, Miji."

I half-expected Miji to whip out her sword and take a swing at the witch, but she simply sat there and continued eating as if nothing had happened. It wouldn't bode well for our only human member to find herself without a head.

As the witch began to change, I looked away; I'd seen enough naked bodies today. Seriously, though, I'm tired of seeing people who look better than I do. It's a little disheartening, but maybe I'll grow some supple boobs someday? I'm still a relatively young youkai, so the possibility still exists! Go for broke!

"There we go! I missed my clothes." Marisa exclaimed triumphantly. "Not to say that your cape wasn't good as well, but..."

"So may I have it back then?" I asked, turning back towards her. Everything was right where it should be, except for the fact that she was now wearing my cape.

"Nah. I think I'll keep it." Marisa noted, adjusting the headphones on her neck. "I've spent so much time with it that I've really taken a liking to it. Don't you think it looks good on me?"

Well, it does look good on her...Wait! No! That's my cape, not hers!

"Even if it does look good on you, it's my cape. Please give it back."

"Maybe you didn't hear me the first time." she repeated in a more hostile tone. "I said: I think I'll keep it."

This is a crucial moment. Should I stand up to her and demand to have my cape back? Should I just let her keep it for now? Will Miji interject and help me out? Do I dare to eat a peach? Wait...what?

"I'll give you the watch if you give me the cape."

"Deal!" Marisa shouted, tossing the black cloth at me. It didn't actually make it all the way to me; it fluttered down on top of the food.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Wriggle?" Miji asked.

"I said that I'd give it back to her, so I'm going to give it back." I replied, snatching my cape and wrapping it around my neck as usual. "If anything, I'm a bug of honesty."

Miji just stared at me for a second before grabbing another chicken skewer and chomping down on it as if nothing had happened.

With that, I tossed the watch back to Marisa, who more-than-eagerly caught and flaunted it. Then again, I expected nothing less of my black-white companion.

"So...we've finished two out of the three things we need to get done before we leave." I began. "I'd like to get this over with, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, I get what you mean." Marisa said with a suggestive tone. "I wanna finish Flan off too, but let's not rush."

Miji and I both let out a long sigh before returning back to a sane mental state. I think I'm going to kill myself if I hear another one of her innuendos. Then again, I wouldn't really die since I'm a youkai...

I'll have to think more deeply about this later.

"Right..." I said, trying to regain control of the conversation. "So...where is this vampire that we're looking for?"

"Well, I can see her right below us." Miji noted. "But I can't figure out how to get to her. There aren't any doors, stairs, or hallways, so I have nothing to go by."

"Oh? That's an easy one, da ze." Marisa replied, finishing off the last cookie. "You just gotta open the floor below us."

Wait...what? There's no way that could be right!

"Are you sure, Marisa?" I asked, accentuating the sarcasm in my voice. "That doesn't sound right at all."

"Trust me. I know how to open it." Marisa said with a twinkle in her eye. "Blast it with the right type of energy, and it'll open wide as Koa's legs."

Wow, that wide?...Wait! No! Bad Wriggle! That doesn't sound safe! Oh wait, nothing about Marisa is safe. Silly me!

"And Remilia just taught you how to blast it open?" Miji asked with a confused look on her face.

"Not really. I found out myself. It was trial and error, da ze." Marisa noted. "First, let's move all of this food to one side of the room."

Without a word, Marisa and Miji started picking up large mounds of food and moving them to the west side of the room. I, being the slow bug that I am, only moved about half as much to the east side as they did. I was met with odd stares when I was done, but it didn't really bother me that much.

"Looks like we're ready to go, da ze." Marisa said with zeal.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" I added, taking the last bite of my pork; the bone didn't have a single piece of meat left on it. "Let's get going, Kiri."

Marisa shot me the death glare. I must have said something that I shouldn't have. But what could that possibly be? Hm...

"Well then, stand back." the witch added, pulling out her hakkero. "You don't wanna fall in when I open it."

Miji and I both stepped back against the eastern wall. Marisa, moving to the opposite side of the room, aimed her hakkero at the center of the floor.

"Here we go!" she yelled, charging her energy.

A bright laser of purple energy quickly rammed into the floor and dissipated. A purple pentagram flared up, only to fade away as the floor began to change.

The middle of the floor disintegrated, creating a gaping hole. There was more than enough room to walk around the outside, but the hole still looked like it could fit four people at a time. I couldn't see the bottom due to how dark it was, but I could feel a presence coming from within it. It was something powerful, something unstable, something...playful? That can't be right...

"Nothin' to be afraid of, da ze." Marisa said, approaching the abyss. "Well, bottoms up!"

With that, she jumped feet first into the pit. Miji, following the witch's lead, did the same. I, however, didn't move an inch.

I'll admit that I was somewhat scared. All that I could think about were what horrors might be lying in the basement just waiting to snatch me up. Oh well, that's a risk that I have to take.

"Well, here goes nothing..." I mumbled to myself.

And with that, I jumped into the pit. Everything was a swirl of blackness, and I quickly couldn't tell whether or not I was falling anymore...

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

27 August, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: We're getting back into the stuff that I actually like writing about! Angsty mess - I mean - screwing with people! So much fun!<strong>

**We're almost through with the SDM, for better or for worse, which I guess I'm glad about. I'd like to touch base on a lot of other Touhou characters in this story, but we'll see how well I can pull that off. You'll have to stay tuned to find out, though!**

**So...that's all for now. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Please leave a review and I'll see you next round! Cheers!**


	16. Our Scarlet Sister

**Author's Notes: Some things about this chapter may seem...off at certain points; by that, I mean that certain phrases or ideas might seem random or non sequitur. I (somewhat) apologize in advance, but most of these points will be relevant later in the story...**

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><p><em>The middle of the floor disintegrated, creating a gaping hole. There was more than enough room to walk around the outside, but the hole still looked like it could fit four people at a time. I couldn't see the bottom due to how dark it was, but I could feel a presence coming from within it. It was something powerful, something unstable, something...playful? That can't be right...<em>

_"Nothin' to be afraid of, da ze." Marisa said, approaching the abyss. "Well, bottoms up!"_

_With that, she jumped feet first into the pit. Miji, following the witch's lead, did the same. I, however, didn't move an inch._

_I'll admit that I was somewhat scared. All that I could think about were what horrors might be lying in the basement just waiting to snatch me up. Oh well, that's a risk that I have to take._

_"Well, here goes nothing..." I mumbled to myself._

_And with that, I jumped into the pit. Everything was a swirl of blackness, and I quickly couldn't tell whether or not I was falling anymore..._

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><p>For a time that seemed like forever, I was falling. When you can't see anything and can't really do anything, you start thinking. Normally, thinking and I don't mix well together, but I did come up with a quote that a wise old firefly once told me:<p>

'There comes a time in a young bug's life when she realizes how tiny and insignificant she is. You might think that you're a queen now, but you're going to get crushed sooner or later if you keep up that rash nature of yours.'

This firefly was only 9 weeks old (most fireflies only live for about eight, so he was actually pretty ancient), but that doesn't change the fact that his advice had meaning. Of course, being the naive idiot that I am, I completely ignored him. After all, I was a rash young bug with no sense of responsibility, or anything else for that matter. Why wouldn't I think that I was the strongest?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. This was right before Marisa and Alice absolutely destroyed me. What convenient timing, huh?

Abruptly, a short blunt noise came from below me. Snapping back into reality, I could only assume that Marisa had made it down safely. Either that or Momiji is really good at falling and managed to get there first. I'm not even going to think about that possibility that our favorite witch turned into a bloody mess on the floor. I promised myself that I wouldn't think like that, and I intend to keep that promise.

But I had to be close now, seeing that the inky blackness was starting to fade into a very faint gray. Hoping to not end up as a puddle on the floor, I began to slow my descent until I heard another noise: pretty much the same clack as before. I assume that Miji has touched down, but I guess I can't be too sure. I trust her more, though, since she's a tengu: flying and landing are her specialties.

And before I knew it, I saw two blurs slowly approaching me: one white and one red. Approaching the bottom of the hole, I forced myself to a grinding halt. The world spun about for a second before I recognized three shapes: a white figure (Miji), a black dot (Marisa), and a red blur (Flandre?). Even if it was still extremely dark, I could at least see what was going on.

"Flan?" Marisa's voice echoed, reassuring me that she wasn't dead. "You in here?"

"Marisa!" a voice cried out in the dark. Immediately, the bright red blur sped across the dimly lit floor and tackled the witch to the ground with a loud crash. After all we've been through, I'm not just going to sit back and watch Marisa be eaten!

I flew down and, without much forethought, rammed straight into the vampire. Letting out a small high-pitched cry, she didn't fly very far, but it was far enough so that Marisa could move again.

"Ow…" the vampire said, clutching her arm as she rose. "Why'd you hit me?"

"Y…Yo Flan…" Marisa replied, catching her breath. "I should be asking ya the same thing. Why'd ya tackle me?"

"I was just happy to see you! You don't come down here that much anymore!" she replied softly. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Yeah…about that…" I spoke, trying to think of something appropriate to say.

"Don't worry about it, Flan." the witch noted, rising to her feet and turning towards Flan's voice. "She was just protecting me, that's all."

I stole a glance at the vampire, who was looking at Marisa with a curious glare; it was as if she were trying to find something. She looked similar to her sister, as anyone would naturally expect, but there were a few major differences. Flandre wore a cap similar to Remilia's on top of her blonde hair, which was about shoulder length and featured a single side ponytail. A scarlet red vest joined at the neck by a yellow ribbon covered a light pink shirt with a ruffled collar; her skirt, which extended to her knees, was the same color as the vest. The weirdest thing about her, though, were her wings: they seemed to be, essentially, a series of rainbow-colored crystals (each individual one was a different color) joined at the top by a thin erratic black rod. They're mesmerizing but frightening at the same time, and I can't imagine that they're real. Then again, I've seen weirder stuff than that.

While I'm at it, I should probably describe the room. There weren't any lights, which usually isn't much of a problem for a nightbug like me. For humans like Marisa, however, it would probably be very hard for them to see one foot in front of their face. Now that I think about it, getting attacked in pitch black darkness probably would have made me piss myself.

The six walls were a stiff and uniform gray, covered with some dark splotches of something that I couldn't recognize at the time. Honestly, it probably wouldn't surprise you if I told what it was. Along the northern wall, there was a simple white mattress lying on the ground which was, again, oddly colored in certain places. Why do I have a bad feeling about this place?

All along the walls of the room were broken pieces of glass (from plates and cups, I assume), ripped clothes, dolls that found themselves without body parts, and...random pieces of scrap metal? I'm suddenly feeling scared. I don't want to end up like any of those things!

And then it hit me. The room smelled like urine. In the southeast corner lay a large bucket full of the stuff, the sight of which caused me to gag. At least let the girl relieve herself in a bush or something! Now that I think about it, I can understand now why Sakuya was calling Remilia a tyrant! It makes perfect sense!

"Ah! Marisa!" the vampire screamed out of the blue, her face reflecting genuine panic and worry. "Is that blood on your face? Did someone hurt you?"

"Yeah…" Marisa began with a pause. I could see that she didn't want to tell her the truth, and I would have done the same thing. Telling her that Sakuya axe kicked Marisa in the head would only cause confusion; after all, she probably wouldn't understand that Ms. Knives had a change of heart. Hell, we don't even know how (or if) Flan was affected yet. Jumping the gun might just cause us to shoot ourselves in the foot.

"One of those fairy maids rounded the corner with a bucket, not noticing that Marisa was right in her path." Miji interjected, lying through her teeth. "The edge of the bucket cut her head. That's all."

Nice save, Miji! You just earned even more of my respect. It's not worth much, but you can have it.

"Yeah. That's what happened." the witch noted in a reluctant tone. "Wasn't her fault though, da ze. I gotta be more careful, I guess."

"But…are you sure you're alright? You look awful!" the vampire moaned with that same concerned look on her face.

"Don't worry about it, Flan." the witch replied, scratching the back of her neck. "It's nothing that I can't handle."

"But I won't feel better until I know for sure that you're alright." Flan remarked pushing up off of the ground. "Come with me and I'll clean you up."

'Clean you up'...? Is it just me or does something sound odd about that? Something tells me that we can't trust her. Maybe it's the room or maybe it's that feeling that I'm getting from her, but I wouldn't-

"Marisa, let's think about this." Miji added in her characteristically serious tone. "We don't even know how she's been affected. Are you sure that we can trust her?"

Write another one up for Miji. Instead of keeping my thoughts to myself, maybe I should speak up next time. Yeah, I'll get around to doing that someday.

"Oh, I forgot about you guys. Who _are_ you two?" the vampire asked, turning towards Miji and I with a wide smile.

"My name is Momiji Inubashiri." the wolf tengu responded promply. "Excuse me for not trusting you right off the bat."

"And I'm Wriggle Nightbug." I added. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise!" Flandre noted excitedly. "I don't get to meet many new people, so I'm glad to have two new friends!"

Did she completely forget that I had just attacked her? Not only that, but she completely ignored both of Miji's comments. I'm somewhat worried now. Let's hope that I'm not right about Flan trying to deceive us.

"Only way we're gonna find out is if we go, da ze." Marisa added with a look of contempt; I think that it was directed at both of us, but she probably couldn't see where we were. "C'mon Flan. I'm with you."

"But wait..." she spoke, again with a concerned face. "You guys are hurt too, aren't you?"

"Well, sorta." I replied solemnly. Honestly, it took you that long to figure it out?

"You poor souls!" she said in an almost imperceptible whine. "C'mon, let Flan take care of you guys too. I don't want my friends to be in pain."

"Bu-"

"Well then lead the way, da ze." Marisa added sharply, cutting me off. "I need to talk to my gang, so we'll be up in a sec."

Hold on a minute! Since when was this _your_ gang?

"Kay!" she replied happily before flying up into the darker-than-this-room darkness. "I'll meet you upstairs!"

And just like that, Flandre vanished above us. I feel somewhat safer, I guess.

"So what exactly did you need to talk to us about?" I asked, still a bit angry from before.

"She's been affected. She doesn't usually act like that." Marisa noted, brushing off her hat. "Problem is, though, that I never would have imagined her to be like this."

At this point, I would normally say something along the lines of 'I hope that it's not what I think it is' or 'I suddenly have a very sick feeling'. For some reason, though, I don't feel that way this time. Is something wrong with me?

"Well, that's great news." Miji sighed sarcastically. "Would you like to tell us what the problem is?"

"First, ya have to know something about Flan." Marisa began, turning towards the sound of Miji's voice; ironically, the witch ended up facing me. "Not to say that she's insane but...she has something misplaced upstairs, da ze."

If I lived in this house of horrors, I'd go crazy too. I can even understand why they would want to lock you up. I feel for you, Flandre Scarlet.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that she normally thinks of people as toys and then breaks them. Flan normally doesn't give a rat's ass about strangers." Marisa continued. "The fact that she forgave you guys in a heartbeat and didn't even bother to 'play' with you makes me concerned. Normally she'd accidentally blow you up or something like that."

Accidentally blow me up? Again, I'm not feeling very threatened. Maybe I should get that checked out later...

"Did you ever think that this offer to clean us up might be a trap?" Miji added, obviously annoyed. "You need to think things through, Marisa. Didn't Mima teach you to have a shred of patience?"

"Sure she did, but busting through stuff with brute force has always worked for me in the past." Marisa noted with her characteristic grin.

"But this is something that we've never dealt with and it sure as hell isn't going to be another non-lethal danmaku duel." Miji noted, this time in an angrier tone. "Get your mind straight, black-white."

"Ahem. May I say something, please?" I added, hoping to end this conversation prematurely.

"No." both of my teammates said in unison.

"Too bad, because I'm speaking." I replied, pumped full of bravado. "I think that we've done enough with this vampire. She doesn't look like she's going to be killing anyone any time soon, so I'd like to just go ahead and leave. Does anyone else agree?"

"No." Marisa repeated bluntly, her acidic voice cutting through the fiber of my being. "As much as I'd love to be a spineless pussy like you, that's not an option. We're going to find out what's wrong, and we're going to fix it."

"Who knows? Maybe she'd be a powerful ally." Miji added, eyeing me for some sort of response. I didn't hesitate to give it to her.

"As much as I feel for her, there's no point in sticking around any longer. We know who _is_ and who _isn't_ affected, not to mention that we've already accomplished our mission." I began, searching myself for some sort of heroic resolve. "Let's face it, we can't actually fix these people. We can only make sure that they don't cause more harm than good. There's no point to staying here if we can't fix Flandre."

Silence. There was no response.

"You know I'm right." I continued, watching the nervous movement of my two companions. "And I know that you guys are both pretty angry at me right now, but just hear me out. I'm not going to sit here and watch us run ourselves ragged over something we can't change. I only hope that you guys can put up with me until we finish this, and then you can be as pissed off at me as you want. Deal?"

That should do it. If I overdid it, well then that's too bad. They can suck it up.

"I'm with Wriggle." Miji noted in a solemn tone. "Marisa, you'd be wise to agree."

"No." she responded curtly.

"C'mon Marisa. Don't make a fool of yourself." the tengu replied.

"No." the witch repeated. "I'm finding out what's wrong with Flandre and that's final."

Without another word, the witch took off upwards on her broom into the inky blackness. Miji, swearing profusely under her breath, begrudgingly followed suit.

At this point, I'm doubting whether or not I should just ditch both of them or help them out. One part of me is screaming 'be smart and run'; the other telling me to 'preserve the team and help them out'.

Well, I'm going to have to get out of here either way. I should probably...wait a minute. What's that?

Two small dolls were lying next to the stained mattress, but there was something odd about them. It was clear that they had both seen a good amount of, to put it lightly, 'wear and tear', but one was completely put back together while the other was only slightly repaired, as if she hadn't finished yet. Why would a vampire hell-bent on destroying things suddenly want to put her ruined friends back together?

...Oh. That makes sense. So what does that mean, exactly?

...Oh wait. Damn it! I've got to make sure that they don't get themselves killed!

In a fit of haste, I quickly pushed off of the ground and took to the air. The tunnel turned the same pitch black as before, throwing me once again into a state of endlessness...

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><p>After what I would guess was a minute, I finally saw the light from the foyer; the door was still open. Without a moment's hesitation, I rushed through the hexagonal hole and planted my feet back on solid ground. As if by instinct, the floor closed shut. There must be some mechanism that makes it do that, but I doubt that I'd understand it.<p>

Since Marisa and Miji were standing near the door, I decided to pull up right next to them. They gave me death glares of the highest degree before turning their attention back to the more serious matter standing on the opposite side of the room.

"Oh, you guys are all here now!" Flandre noted with a bright smile. "If you'll just foll-"

"Hold it!" I shouted at the vampire. "I need to say something first. It's important."

Everyone in the room turned towards me, faces filled with either anticipation, annoyance, or anger. Now that I'm on the spot, let's not screw this up.

"Flandre thinks that she's everyone's mo-"

Before I could finish my sentence, I was interrupted by the sound of crying. This normally wouldn't have stopped me, but the fact that it was not only extremely loud but was also coming from straight down the center hall was enough to make me stop dead in my tracks.

The source of the noise was a fairy maid. In a grand display of grace, she ran out into the middle of the foyer and fell flat on her face. Don't these things remember that they can fly? Her outfit was ripped to shreds, failing to keep any part of her body modest. Honestly, I've seen enough naked bodies today that I'm not affected by it.

"Etsuko!" Flandre cried, flying over to the fallen fairy and crouching down to help her. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Etsuko? Oh wait...it's that one maid again: the one that almost let me get raped. She just couldn't leave me alone, could she?

"F...F..." she stuttered, holding back a waterfall of tears. She was obviously seriously upset about something.

"It's fine. You can tell Mama Flan." she spoke softly. "Who did this to you?"

So I was right. She now has an overwhelming desire to repair broken things: probably living things like those that she had broken in the past. In other words, she's become an insanely over-protective motherly vampire.

...We're all doomed.

"Those...intruders..." the maid coughed softly. "They...hurt...us..."

"They did what?" Flandre cried, snapping her head 180 degrees towards us. "How dare you hurt my children! Why would you do such a thing?"

"Wait! It's not true!" I cried out, trying to salvage the situation. "We're not those intruders! We didn't hurt any maids!"

"Lies..." Etsuko spoke. "She's...lying..."

Remind me to come strangle her later, ok? I mean it.

"I won't let you hurt my beloved children! Not even if you are one of my best friends!" Flandre exclaimed, this time turning her whole body towards us. "You'll only hurt her more!"

"Now hold on, Flan. We're not gonna hurt her, da ze." Marisa said, backing away from the vampire with increasing speed. "Just calm down and let's talk about this like civilized people."

"You sick bastards!" Flandre exclaimed, her eyes turning into those of pure hatred. "I won't let you get away with hurting my babies!"

So she really is a crazy mess. I know exactly what I want to do right now. Can you guess what it is?

"So, sorry for disturbing you, Flandre..." I began, subtly maneuvering myself towards the main door. "We'll get out of your way. Just let us walk right through those doors and we'll be on our way. No harm done, right?"

If you guessed 'get the fuck out of here', then you're right! Congratulations!

"Wrong!" she exclaimed, standing up from her crouch and aiming her hand at us. "Now die!"

And at this precise moment, we were all thinking the same thing:

"Use the watch!" I shouted to Marisa. "Hurry up and use the watch!"

The witch, caught off guard, fumbled her hand around in her hat. Hurry up, damn it! We're gonna die!

"KYU-"

And just as soon as I thought I would explode into a million pieces, it didn't. Instead, I heard a deafeningly high-pitched scream and noticed that three things were different about the situation: Marisa was standing on the opposite side of the room with Miji's sword, the floor was beginning to open up again, and Flandre found herself without a head. Good job, Marisa.

As I later found out, decapitating a vampire will not kill her. It will put a serious halt on pretty much all activities, though, since they now need to focus on regenerating their missing head. It takes a lot of time, sometimes upwards of two or three days: which is extremely quick compared to the pitiful regenerative capabilities of humans.

Another thing to note is that Flandre can come out of the basement whenever she wants. It's just that, for some reason, she actually likes it down there. Mysty's song might have changed that, but this still gives us plenty of time to get out of harm's way.

Anyways, the vampire and the fairy both fell into the void with a satisfying cry. We successfully avoided death...again. We must be either extremely lucky or extremely awesome. I think that I'll go with the latter. It's edgier.

"You guys alright?" I asked, looking around to make sure that we were all still here. Reassuring myself that I wasn't actually dead, I took a deep sigh of relief.

"Never better, da ze." Marisa shouted, from across the room. Pulling out her hakkero, she shot a purple beam similar to the one from before into the center of the hole. As if by magic, the floor once again became whole.

"May we please stop getting into situations like these? You guys almost make me want to live a calm and fulfilling life." Miji added, walking over straight to the door. "Well now that we're through with that, how about we get out of here?"

"Sweeter words have never been said." Marisa remarked happily, grabbing some more tarts before sauntering over to the door and giving Miji her sword back. "Nothing like a good old-fashioned decapitation, eh Miji?

"I'd rather not talk about it." she replied, opening the door. "After you, Ms. Kill-isame."

Tengu. Humor. Must. Die.

"Sure, da ze." she mumbled while stuffing a pastry into her mouth. "You coming, Wriggle?"

"Yeah." I responded simply, walking towards my companions. Resolute, we passed through the large double doors into the garden. Our time in the Scarlet Devil Mansion has ended, and I can honestly say that I won't miss it.

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><p>The moon was only a quarter of the way up into the sky, shining down upon us with it's refreshing beams. Something about being outside just made me want to jump around like a little kid. Then again, I'd just look silly. Oh well.<p>

Marisa and Miji seemed to have the same sentiment. The wolf tengu had a slight smile on her face as she looked around at the flowers. Marisa, on the other hand, had an almost sadistic grin on her face. She really lives for fighting, doesn't she?

The smell of flowers permeated the air, creating a calm and relaxing atmosphere. If it weren't for the fact that everyone who lives here is either a drunk, a rebel, or a flat-out insane vampire, I might actually come back and visit this place. Might.

"All that fighting has made me tired, da ze." Marisa noted, rubbing her eyes for emphasis. "I'm human ya know. I gotta get my beauty sleep."

Remind me to ask her how that works. If sleeping is all it takes to be as pretty as she is, then I just might have to steal - I mean 'borrow' - that technique.

"So you're suggesting that we take a quick rest, am I correct?" Miji asked, following the witch.

"Pretty much." Marisa replied with a yawn. "Maybe Meiling has room in her doghouse."

Wait...is she being serious? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

Passing through the front gate, which for some reason wasn't locked, Marisa immediately ran towards the lake and splashed water on her face. It took a while, but the dried blood was starting to come off. I, remembering that I had been stabbed in the head, decided that I should do the same. The water was refreshingly cool, and I could feel the flakes of dirt and blood run off of me. This makes me wish that the forest had a lake in it so that I could wash myself more frequently.

"Well, good night, guys." Miji said after picking a spot on the grass and laying her equipment down. Without a moment's hesitation, she plopped down on the ground and almost immediately fell asleep. That's another technique that I'll have to learn.

Turning around, I saw that Meiling was asleep next to the open gate. There wasn't a doghouse, which was reassuring, but I feel kinda sorry for her.

"Night, da ze." Marisa noted, finding a spot of grass that was suitable for sleeping on. "Wake me up before you go go, ok?"

"Sure." I replied with a faint smile. She says the weirdest things sometimes.

Placing her hat over her face, Marisa rolled onto her back and fell asleep. How can she breathe underneath that thing? There are so many things that I want to ask her, but that'll have to wait until mor-

"Hey! What's the gate doing open!" Meiling shouted, apparently waking up. She walked over to the gate and closed it quietly, locking the latch in the process. Surprisingly, neither of my companions woke up. They must have been really exhausted.

"Um...excuse me." I said quietly, addressing the door guard. "We were just wondering if we could rest here for the night. Is that fine with you?"

"Huh? Oh, it's you." she noted with a hint of annoyance. "Why don't you want to sleep inside? They have beds in there."

"Not an option." I replied, walking up to her calmly. "Seeing as we've been attacked by pretty much everyone in there, I don't feel comfortable going back in there."

"Well that's fine with me, I guess." Meiling said with a pause. "Wait. What do you mean by 'we've been attacked by pretty much everyone in there'?"

And so I told her. I told her everything about what had gone on in the past few hours: the drunken Patchouli and sex-obsessed demon, the rebellious chief maid who had almost ripped us to shreds, and the insane motherly vampire. Finally, and most importantly, I told her that Mysty was the one behind it all; her songs were responsible for this whole ordeal. What Meiling asked in response, however, caught me off gaurd:

"And I let her get through?" she asked with a disappointed look on her face. "What kind of a gate guard am I?"

But she doesn't show any concern for the residents of the mansion? Does she even care about them at all?

"But it's not your fault, right?" I asked. "There must be some reason."

"I have an extremely odd sleep cycle, but it's not my fault. There's just too much that I have to be awake for." Meiling admitted, still trying to absorb everything that I had told her. "When she first hired me, Mistress Remilia said that I need to be awake during the day so that I could deter any threats that would come while she's sleeping. Now that she's opening up to the world more, I have to be awake at night too; I'm supposed to be a 'friendly face' or something so that people won't immediately run away when they hear this place is run by vampires. My job is...pretty tough."

I agree with that. Miss Meiling, you have my sympathy.

"If it's that bad, have you ever thought about quitting?" I asked. "I mean, it sounds like your job sucks. Why would you put up with that?"

"I guess I just love everyone here too much." the guard noted, twirling one of the braids in her hair. "But that doesn't excuse my inability to guard this mansion effectively. I let one get through and it screwed up everything."

"Don't worry about it." I said, patting her on the shoulder. "If you would have tried to stop her, you would have ended up being altered as well."

"You're right." Meiling replied after a pause. "Thanks, Wriggle. You're not so bad after all."

Thank you for stroking my ego. I feel a little bit better now.

"Thank you, Meiling." I added, walking away. "I hope that everything works out alright."

"I do too." she said with a smile. "Good night."

"Good night."

Picking a comfortable-looking spot of grass, I slowly lowered myself down to the ground. My body was still pretty sore, but it wasn't that bad. It could have been much worse.

I think that I finally understand what that wise firefly told me. I've had to come to grips with things much stronger than me and ended up whimpering in defeat almost every time. I may not be a queen now, but who's to say that I can't become THE queen: the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. It's possible, wouldn't you agree?

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I've let myself be walked on for too long. I'm sick and tired of it, and I will not let it happen ever again. Remember this promise and mark my words: 'I will not be weak anymore!'

With motivational thoughts pulsing through my mind and a soft grass underneath me, I drifted off into the land of dreams for the first time in what seemed like forever. I better get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a big day.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

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><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

18 September, 2011

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: And we're FINALLY out of the SDM! And it only took 7 chapters! Take it as you will, but I would like to move on to (not necessarily "bigger and better") new things. That's why this story is still going, after all. I originally only planned for it to be about 8 to 10 chapters long, but I guess that everything got out of hand. My bad!~<strong>

**Anyways, thank you all for reading this far! I'm still very happy to be writing this and that I have a number of fans (at least, I hope I have some...), so don't forget to leave a review so that I may correct my errors (praise is appreciated too, just so you know). So, I guess that I'll see you all next round! Cheers!**


	17. Our Cold Reminder

**Author's Notes: Team 9, in this story, does not exist. Although it is canonically true that Team 9 exists (some shots from the doujins verify this, much to my dismay), I decided that they broke up after some event. Will it be explained later? Who knows?**

**Also, this chapter might come off as somewhat cliche. Hopefully it's not vomit-inducing, but that'll be up to you to judge.**

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><p><em>I think that I finally understand what that wise firefly told me. I've had to come to grips with things much stronger than me and ended up whimpering in defeat almost every time. I may not be a queen now, but who's to say that I can't become THE queen: the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo. It's possible, wouldn't you agree?<em>

_I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I've let myself be walked on for too long. I'm sick and tired of it, and I will not let it happen ever again. Remember this promise and mark my words: 'I will not be weak anymore!'_

_With motivational thoughts pulsing through my mind and a soft grass underneath me, I drifted off into the land of dreams for the first time in what seemed like forever. I better get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a big day._

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><p>Waking up is normally one of my favorite parts of the day. There's a beautiful day ahead: full of fun, frolic, and adventure. The sun (or moon) is as good as a bath for me: comforting and calm. Yes, that would be a wonderful day.<p>

But when a kick to the side wakes you up, your day doesn't feel like it's going to be that great.

"Yo Wriggle, wake up!" Marisa's voice called, nudging the spot where she had just kicked me with her foot. "We gotta go real soon, da ze."

I, rubbing my side, opened my ears to see the witch standing over me with an eager smile plastered over her face. I didn't notice it before, but she looks much more natural with a silly over-the-top smile than a normal one. Now that I think about it, that's really weird. I wonder how people think that I look...

"Oh good, you're up." she said, backing up a bit. "I went ahead and grabbed some breakfast, but Miji said that she didn't want any. You youkai are weird, da ze."

Standing up, I first noticed that the sun hadn't risen yet. The moon wasn't visible either, hiding behind the looming red mansion. I still don't understand why it looks so small, but I'll ask about that later.

Marisa was, besides harassing me, thoroughly examining her pair of headphones. Stretching them, playing with them, trying to wear them as a belt: nothing was too eccentric for her. Maybe she'll learn something interesting. Who knows?

Miji, on the other hand, was busy wiping her sword down with the hem of her dress. The lake water was getting the blood off pretty well: not too shiny, but she probably had her own method of cleaning her weapons back at home.

"Hey, Wriggle." Meiling called out from her post. "Would you come here for a sec?"

"Sure." I replied as I sauntered over to her. She looked a little bit happier than yesterday, but you can't be too sure. Marisa and Miji seemed busy doing their own little things, so I don't think that we have to worry about them.

"So, I was thinking about it and...I understand what you were trying to say." she began softly. "You were right, I guess."

"Hm? About what?" I asked. I think that I already know, but I just want to make sure.

"I think that it's my nature to be a kind and loving person, but I can't believe that I didn't notice this earlier; I don't really love them, I guess. I just accepted the fact that they gave me food as a sign of their love for me." Meiling noted with a laugh. "Now that I think about it, it's pretty funny."

This place seems to be built on false feelings of trust and loyalty. If one person snaps, everyone snaps. The current state of the mansion wouldn't help the situation either.

"Well, what do you plan to do with your life?" I noted with a hopeful tone. "You must have something in mind..."

"Not really, but I'd much rather follow my dreams than spend the rest of my long life guarding a gate that nobody really uses. You understand, right?"

Honestly, I don't. I've never had a menial job, but I have a desire to better myself. Regardless, I can sympathize with her.

"Well, I hope that you find happiness in some way or another." I replied, turning my back. "See you later, Meiling. Maybe we'll see each other again soon."

"We just might." she replied, simply. "Have a good day, and go kick that sparrow's ass for me."

I couldn't help but giggle inside. I don't intend to absolutely destroy Mysty, but she needs to get back in line. If we can teach her responsibility, then there should be no problem. No need for us to 'kick that sparrow's ass' if we don't have to.

Walking back over to my team, I noticed that they were fiddling with the watch. Not that it makes me uneasy, but I'd like to keep this kind of power a secret. We only need to use it if we need it, and we definitely needed it last night. I can't think of any other way that we could have gotten out of that situation, honestly. Oh well, that's behind us now.

"Alright guys, are we ready to go?" I asked, doing my best to brush the back of my hair down.

"Ready." Miji added simply.

"Sure, da ze." Marisa replied, stretching once before mounting her broom. "Been waiting on ya. What took ya so long?"

"I was just taking care of business with Meiling. We're good to go."

"Well then, let's head out. I'll lead the way." Miji noted flying up into the air. Marisa, hopping onto her broom, pushed off behind her and I followed suit, eager to see Mysty again.

* * *

><p>It was a little bit windy: damp but cool. It's perfect weather for traveling since there's nothing that makes you want to quit flying: the blazing sun, violent winds, torrential rains, even freezing snow. I wonder if this is what a cloud feels like. Remind me to find out later.<p>

From up above the lake, I could see the sky's reflection in the motionless water. Even though it was nighttime - which really doesn't hinder my vision much now that I think about it - I could clearly see the outlines of the clouds and the waning moon. I remember that there's some sort of civilization there, but I don't know much about it. Not only that, but humans have a lot of myths and stuff about it that I don't really understand.

Well, we've got time to kill. Why not ask some questions?

"Hey, Marisa." I called. "What does it mean when people say 'a rabbit in the moon'?"

"Oh? Well that has two good answers." she replied, doing that fancy spin from before. "One is that, if you look real close, the craters of the moon form a rabbit shape."

"Really?" I asked, craning my neck up towards the sky. Sure enough, there was a shadowy rabbit-like shape on it. I can't believe that I had never noticed that before. "That's pretty neat."

"Yeah, it is." Marisa noted. "The second is that some types of rabbits come from the moon: ones like Reisen. Some people even say that all rabbits came from the moon, but the earth rabbits changed to match their new environment while the lunar rabbits stayed up on the moon. Odd, huh?"

"Yeah, kinda." I said. "But that's a cool story. Thanks."

"No problem, da ze." Marisa added with a pause. "So Miji, where're we going?"

"Forest of Magic." she replied simply. "They're still sleeping, so we should be able to take them by surprise."

"Just Alice and Mysty?" I asked.

"Yes."

That's comforting to hear. Maybe we don't have to worry too much after all. All we have to do is get Mysty to fix Alice, Aya, the entire Scarlet Devil Mansion, some of the people in the Bamboo Forest. Wait, that's a lot of people. Oh Wriggle, what have you gotten yourself into?

"I'm never going to play tag ever again." I blurted out.

Marisa turned to me with a 'what's wrong with you?' look on her face. I quickly covered my mouth with both hands before breaking eye contact.

"Eh? What do you mean, Wriggle?" the witch asked with a skeptical tone. "You afraid of tag or something?"

Oh, that's right. They don't even know how this all began.

"I should explain." I began, turning my head back towards Marisa and Miji. "Mysty and I were playing a game of tag and-"

"Heads up." Miji noted nonchalantly. "Greater fairy at ten o'clock."

"Good to know." I said with a hint of annoyance. "As I was saying, she was starting to show off by flying backwards and-"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaah!" a voice came crying out from in front of us: more a cry of frustration rather than sadness. And that's the second time I've been interrupted in a minute. Fantastic.

As Miji had said, it was a greater fairy. She was wearing a long blue dress with white sleeves. Her long green hair was tied into a side ponytail by a bright yellow ribbon; there was another of the same color around her waist. Her wings were a bright white, but most people could mistake them for gold in the right light. For once, I actually know who this is fluttering towards us.

"Dai?" I asked over the din of her voice. "Is that-"

"Wriggle?" she shouted, stopping her prolonged cries of what sounded like anger. "You've gotta help me!"

Make that the third time...

"Oh look, it's Daiyousei." Marisa noted slyly, turning to see the approaching fairy. "Where's your icy buddy?"

"That's the problem!" she noted, stopping in midair before turning to follow us as we passed her. "She hasn't been acting like herself lately!"

This sounds familiar. Chalk another one up for the night sparrow. Will we ever get a break from this? I'm starting to get annoyed.

"We're on it." I replied. I used to hang out with Cirno and Daiyousei on a regular basis, along with Rumia and Mysty. One prank went seriously wrong though, and we each went our separate ways. I'm pretty sure that Mysty's the only one who actually did something useful afterwords: founding her lamprey stand. Whether is was built on good principles or not is anyone's guess.

"Woah! Woah! Slow down there!" Marisa said. "Are you sure that this isn't out of our way?"

She jabbed me sharply in the elbow, which I promptly began to rub to ease the pain. I know what you're implying, but we're not skipping out on her.

"Then take it as a personal favor." Dai replied. "Just do something! Please?"

"That's the magic word." I noted, pulling up right beside the fairy. "C'mon guys. Work with me here."

"Use your head, Wriggle." the witch replied. "We don't have time to help everyone we see. Let's just go on our merry way and-"

"Both of you be quiet." Miji commanded, speaking up for the first time. "Let's just see what's wrong so we can keep it in mind later, alright? No need to stick around."

"That's right." I agreed. "We'll be in and out in a second, so don't worry about it."

"Really?" Dai replied. "Thanks, guys! It means a lot! It really does!"

I could see a look of resentment on Marisa's face, but I can't agree with her. I know that she doesn't like Cirno much (at least, I think so), but she can spare five minutes for a flyby. It's not going to kill her or anything.

And so, Dai flew off in the direction that she came. Miji and I followed right behind, while Marisa hung in the back. It seemed like she was looking for something, but I can't remember what made me feel that way. Oh well. I'm sure it's nothing serious.

* * *

><p>It wasn't long before we saw the lake's shore. It was made of a dark-brown colored dirt, leaving a distinct line between the grass and the water. Not especially interesting, but I should probably explain why that stuck out to me.<p>

Sitting there, playing with the dirt, was a fairy that I knew. She was wearing a dark blue dress over a bright white blouse, both of which complemented her light blue hair. She also wears an aqua-colored ribbon and has a brilliant set of six crystalline wings which look as if they're made of ice. Speaking of which, she can manipulate the cold. It could be a really useful power if she knew how to use it, but...she never really took the time to.

A lot of people, when asked how to describe Cirno, would pick words such as 'annoying', 'energetic', 'prankster', or, the most popular choice, 'idiot'. Honestly, they're right. Even though I've been called an idiot before, you can't get any more ignorant than Cirno. It just isn't possible.

"Cirno!" Dai called out to the fairy. "I'm back! Are you feeling better now?"

"Was I feeling badly earlier?" she replied, sifting the water-soaked soil through her hand. "If anything, I'm feeling fine."

Wait...something doesn't sound right.

"Well, don't you wanna go prank some humans, then?" Dai asked hopefully, placing one hand on her hip. "You always love doing that."

Cirno didn't respond immediately. Instead she picked up another clump of dirt from the ground and brought it over to our group, resting on some trees a little bit away from the lake.

"You know, I would love to do that...but what does it get me? A brief moment of hilarity before I get the stuffing beaten out of me by one Marisa Kirisame." she began, pointing strongly towards the witch standing to my right. "I guess...it's just not worth it anymore compared to other pursuits. There are so many mysteries that no fairy has ever tried to solve! Imagine finding out why, for example, this dirt is a darker color than all of the rest in the forest. Doesn't that just sound...fascinating?"

Perfect. Just perfect. I don't think I need to say what happened to Cirno at this point. It's pretty obvious.

"Fascinating...?" Dai paused. "More like 'boring' to me."

"If you don't want to help, that's fine." Cirno replied, funneling some of her cold into the patch of dirt; thin sharp icicles formed, jutting out of the clump. "But you won't get any of the glory that comes with it. After all-"

"Woah woah woah!" Marisa interjected, casually approaching the ice fairy. "Are you telling me that you aren't gonna prank humans anymore and that you're gonna spend your time finding out facts about the universe?"

"Yes ma'am." Cirno replied politely, dropping the spiky ball of dirt on the ground. "That is, if it's alright with you. I don't want to get in your way or anything."

...Where did this politeness come from? I didn't even know that she knew how to be polite, let alone know when to use it or even use it at all!

"Eh...sure, I guess." Marisa replied with a pause. She had a somewhat confused look on her face.

"Well, this is unsettling..." my wolf teammate added softly. "Fairies not behaving like fairies...sounds like a very unstable situation."

Excuse me, Miji; I was thinking the opposite. If one fairy finally steps up, maybe all of the other dim-witted ones will join along. Mysty and Alice might have actually made a good call this time.

"So, may I get back to what I was doing?" Cirno asked, twiddling her thumbs eagerly.

"Sure. No problem." I replied. "It was good to see you again. I hope that you do good."

I could swear that I heard her mutter "do well" under her breath as she floated back over to her previous spot, but that's not important.

"C'mon Dai, let's chat." I continued, beckoning her with a wave of my hand. She flew over to us slowly and looked at me with a stern expression. Marisa was still in a state of shock, and Miji was playing with one of those fluffs on her blouse.

"Do you see what's wrong?" Dai asked with a concerned tone of voice.

"Yeah, da ze." Marisa replied. "Cirno's given up playing pointless tricks on humans. Good thing, too."

"No it's not!" Dai noted fiercely before sighing softly. "No reason to get mad about it, but still! Next time I see her, I'm gonna show her why they call me the 'greater fairy'!"

"Hm? Who's 'her'?" I asked.

"That one bird and the puppeteer from the forest." she said with a slight scowl on her face. "I could have sworn that there was someone else with 'em, but..."

Someone else? You can't be serious. Haven't we already checked out everyone else already? As far as I know, we didn't miss anyone. But still...

I turned to Miji, whose ears had perked up. I think that she was having the same thought that I was. Something along the lines of: 'We missed someone?'. Almost immediately, her face turned from surprise into anger. As a sentry, it's her job to notice things like these. Don't beat yourself up too hard, Miji.

"...didn't even understand what they were saying." Dai continued. "Something like I wasn't a threat or something. What's that supposed to mean? I mean really! Next time I see 'em, I'll-"

"Hold on." I interrupted. "They thought that you weren't a threat?"

"Of course. Weren't you listening?" Marisa added sarcastically. "Daiyousei doesn't really have any fancy powers or anything like that, you know."

Dai anxiously gulped down a mass of air. As sad as it is to say, Marisa's right; Dai doesn't really have any powers at all. Well, I guess you could say that she doesn't die instantly to Reimu's needles or Marisa's magic missiles. That's worth something, right?

"If anything...you're lucky." Miji added with a sharp tone.

"I am?" Dai replied. "I don't see how-"

"Just trust us." Miji replied even more sharply. "Being a threat would make you a target. That's all you need to know."

Dai's inquisitive look turned into one of gloom and her wings drooped a bit. She isn't the kind that would just break down and cry in front of people, so she's probably feeling a lot of self-pity. I wouldn't be surprised; I've been there before.

"Hey! Don't worry too much about it! We'll make sure that everything turns out alright." I noted optimistically with a smile.

"Yeah. Sure. Nothin' to worry about." Marisa added. "I'll smoke the bad guys real good for ya, ya hear?"

Miji simply stared at us with her sharp eyes. Something must really be bothering her.

"Really? Thanks, guys!" Dai replied with a cocky grin; she seems to be feeling better now. "Make it snappy, alright? I don't want my best friend to be stuck like this forever."

I simply nodded, to which Dai flew off to where Cirno was. It's good to see that Dai's one of the only people who wasn't messed up. It's hard to see friends in tough situations, you know?

But then there's Cirno. I don't feel as sympathetic for her. Mysty made a good change; that idiot fairy needed a bit of common sense. Not like I care much anymore after that one incident, but I decided to put that in the past. After all, leave it to me to think that I could do magic as well as Marisa can.

...Maybe I'll tell you about it later. Now's not the time.

"Ready to go?" I asked as I spun back around. Marisa had already mounted her broom and Miji was

"Waitin' on you, princess." the witch replied sarcastically.

Princess...?

Yeah. I like the sound of that. 'Princess Nightbug'. That's what I am, right? The next stage before the queen. Fragile now...but powerful later! Yes. That's what I am. That's who I am.

"Yo! Spacey!" Marisa called again. "Do you need an invitation? Hurry up!"

"Coming!" I called before pushing off into the air. It was somewhat cold yet refreshingly...refreshing. Something like that.

Miji picked up next to me and Marisa came up in between us. I can feel it, though. Something brought us together. Not just the fact that Alice and Aya are their motivations for coming with me. Something personal. A bond that was there that nobody else had noticed. Maybe...?

Nah, I'm just seeing things. They'll leave just after we're through: simple as that. That's how it should be, anyways.

"What's the status report, Miji?" Marisa asked.

"Green as grass." she replied. "A couple of times where I thought we might have to pick up and leave quickly, but they're still out cold."

"So how should we take 'em?" Marisa began. "We could always go head on."

"Flanking would be better."

"Why would you need to flank a sleeping opponent?"

"We should cover all angles just to be safe. We aren't going to take any chances..."

As much as I wanted to, though, I couldn't focus on what they were saying. I could hear it, but I somehow couldn't pay attention. I really should be focused right now, but...

* * *

><p>Daydreaming...smooth as silk yet as transient as the sunset. There's something beautiful about them, something that can't be put into words: quality.<p>

"Excuse me, Miss Wriggle." a male voice said in the darkness. "Are you sure that-"

"You will address her as 'Queen', filthy human." a somewhat familiar voice cried. I knew who it was, but I couldn't place it.

I opened my eyes to see...not much of anything. It looked like I was sitting upon a throne made of wood. It's slightly overgrown now, but I like the look of it. Reminds me of the forest.

Off to my right was a figure that I couldn't identify. She looked very old: white hair and a pure-white flower in her hair. She also wore a dark green vest with red sleeves covered in white flower prints. A faded orange skirt finished the look, which made me gag. Orange never was my favorite color, especially not when paired with red and green.

Off to my left was where the familiar voice came from. All I could see, however, was a light-blue parasol. The throne's arms blocked my view of her lower half.

Most importantly, though, a male human was on his knees in front of me. He was wearing a very simple white shirt with a pair of brown pants that fit loosely around his legs. He had something dark smudged along his face, the same color as his hair; his eyes, though, were a dark green. Not a very common eye color for youkai or humans. I should know who this is, but I can't remember right now. Seems familiar somehow...

"I apologize, Queen Nightbug." he said regretfully. "I just wanted to get something straight. Are you sure that the Human Village is in good standing?"

"Yes." a voice said calmly. "You can bring word of that to them."

Wait...was that me? That didn't sound anything like me. I know that I was the one who said it, but that wasn't me!

"Next time, think before interrupting Queen Nightbug with such a trivial matter!" the parasol voice cried out again.

"Again, I apologize." the man said with a hint of fear. "Thank you for allowing me time in your court."

And just like that, he stood up and disappeared into the darkness.

"So..." my voice began again. "That just leaves-"

* * *

><p>And just like that, the world flashed into brightness for a split second. The familiar view of clouds and other things came back to me. The cold air was rushing by me as it had been before. The trees were flying beneath me like they had before. My companions were flying with me like they had before.<p>

What a weird dream. I'm surprised that I didn't fall out of the sky. That has happened before, but-

"Wriggle!" Miji exclaimed. "Answer me when I ask you something!"

Huh? What were they talking about again?

"Eh..." I stalled nervously. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"The battle plan. Are you alright with it?"

"Don't you think that's a little tame, though?" Marisa added. "No explosions or anything? How lame, da ze."

"Yeah, I guess I'm alright with it." I muttered. I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure that Miji thought up something clever and smart. She is a tengu, after all.

"So it's decided." she said commandingly. "We're almost there, so you both better be ready. If you aren't, you should take a moment to compose yourself."

Searching deep within myself...I couldn't find anything. Oh well! I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be!

"Ready." Marisa noted, hakkero in hand.

"Ready." I added, not really ready but hoping that everything would turn out nicely.

"Well then..." the wolf tengu said. "Let's go."

And with that, she dove down into the trees. The witch followed suit and I, wondering exactly what we were going to do, fell behind both of them. Time to pay Mysty and Alice a visit!

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

* * *

><p>Characters and the Touhou universe belong to Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN)<p>

Written by: Kerreb17

5 November, 2011

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: I almost feel bad for throwing a daydream into this chapter. How cliche can you get? Well, it'd only be cliche if it meant something. Does it mean anything, then? I'm not sure, actually. Let's see how it goes, shall we?<strong>

**The next chapter is going to be a big one (both in length and impact), so don't forget to stay tuned! Why not leave a review while you're at it? Thanks for sticking with it so far! Cheers!**


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